UNIVERSITY of the East President Ester Garcia clarified recently that the decision not to impose tuition hike was made even before the Manila and Caloocan student councils filed appeals.

In a report by the UE campus publication The Dawn, Garcia said the Board of Trustees already approved the motion not to increase tuition for Academic Year 2021-2022 before she received the students’ appeal.

“Long before the SCs [Caloocan and Manila] sent me their letters, the management had already decided not to have tuition fee increase. This recommendation was submitted to the BOT and it was approved,” she said.

“It was not my initiative alone. It was the consensus of the deans and chancellors and supported by the SVP,” she added.

This contradicts the earlier statement of UE Caloocan Chancellor Zosimo Battad which praised the collective call of the student body to not have a tuition hike due to the current pandemic situation.

“I already reported officially to the UE Higher authorities your good deeds to the studentry. I would like to inform you too that we decided not to have tuition fee increase this year taking notice of your advocacy and dire situation we are all facing,” Battad said last month.

The Central Student Council of UE-Caloocan earlier said that increasing school fees would lead to lower enrollment because the pandemic greatly affected the finances of families.