Student members of the Alliance Against the Commoditization of Education yesterday staged a protest outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei, calling on the ministry to reject applications by universities to increase tuition fees.
Twenty-three universities have applied to raise tuition by between 1.5 and 3.5 percent this year, following a five-year freeze.
A student surnamed Chen (陳) said that the proposed increases would unfairly impact low-income households, forcing students from these families to spend more time working than studying.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
He said the budget holes should be filled by additional subsidies funded by raising the capital gains tax.
Chen added that the ministry’s current system of awarding subsidies encourages tuition hikes by forcing poorly performing schools to rely on tuition for funding.
The protesters also called for majority student representation in university meetings on tuition.
Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said the ministry would rigorously review each school’s application for tuition hikes based on their particular circumstances, with final approval depending on the results of the ministry’s review committee meetings.
Reviews of schools’ applications for tuition hikes focus on three areas: how the additional funds raised would be used to improve education quality; university compliance with government procedures on drafting tuition increases; and supporting measures to alleviate the impact of tuition hikes on students from disadvantaged households.
Department of Higher Education Deputy Director Ma Hsiang-ping (馬湘萍) said the ministry has allocated an additional NT$360 million (US$11.6 million) in university subsidies for this year for low-income students’ admissions and counseling.
It has also introduced low-income student admission targets into funding for elite universities for the first time, Ma said.
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