THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas will not implement a tuition increase for freshmen students on the second year of the implementation of online classes.

However, the university said students will have to pay 50 percent of their tuition upon enrollment.

The Office of the Vice Rector for Finance has released the new schedule of fees for first year students. Miscellaneous and other fees in almost all programs were either decreased or removed.

The tuition for college freshmen will be P1,692 per lecture unit and P3,384 per laboratory unit, except for the College of Architecture, which will charge lower laboratory fees at P1,692 per unit.

Physical Education courses will still cost P3,223 each, while National Service Training Program and Reserve Officer Training Corps courses will remain at P2,538 each.

Some minor fees were also lowered or eliminated, including the advice and counseling and energy fees, which were each cut by nearly half, and the physical infrastructure development fee, which was dropped by P150. The cultural charge has been abolished.

For Academic Year 2021-2022, UST scratched the P5,000 downpayment for the installment payment scheme for freshmen, and required a downpayment of 50 percent.