STUDENT groups in the University of the East-Caloocan campus called on the school’s administration not to increase tuition and other fees for Academic Year 2021-2022.

The Central Student Council said that many facilities on campus and other school fees provided no direct benefit to the students amid the conduct of distance learning.

“Retaining such fees or even increasing them is unjustifiable and unfair on the part of the students. In relation to this, the breakdown of the specific allocation of the said fees gives little to no reason as to why they should be paid for as no clear benefit is derived,” CSC said in a letter to UE President Ester Garcia.

“It has been made known, time and again, that the community is against the tuition fee increase for the aforementioned reasons. It has been mentioned that even a decrease would be a more understandable course of action and would show not simply concern, but also fairness, given that learning today mainly takes place within the students’ homes through their own equipment,” it added.

The student body said the increase in school fees would lead to lower enrollment because the pandemic had greatly affected the students’ families financially.

Citing reports from the Commission on Higher Education, it said that 304 out of the 393 universities that applied for tuition hike in 2020 withdrew their application. However, UE pushed through with its application.

The CSC said that the university’s move is a “significant misalignment” between the promise of UE administration and its actual concern for the welfare of the students.

It added that the revocation of scholarship grants “only aggravates the situation.”

“Compromising academic excellence goes against the mission and vision statement of the university that promises affordable, quality education and creative scholarship,” it said.

“At the very least, refraining from applying for another tuition fee increase, in the belief of the students, the most, if not only, reasonable decision that could be made by the university,” the group added.