Nearly 90 percent of the private universities nationwide have decided to increase their tuition fees by approximately 5 percent, the maximum rate of increase based on regulations established by the Ministry of Education (MOE), a report issued by education authorities said yesterday.
The adjustment was attacked by MOE officials as being unreasonable.
Amid a total of 31 private universities, Aletheia University (
The adjustment was regarded as being more excessive than necessary, said Yang Yu-hui (
"Based on a rule stipulated by the MOE, the tuition and supplementary fees billed by any private university have to be spent on three categories -- administration, instructional research and scholarships," Yang said.
"If the total fee received is found to exceed the aggregate of these three groups of expenses, the MOE will publicize the names of these schools, whose funding [provided from the MOE] will be cut in the following academic year."
Yang reaffirmed that schools were certainly allowed to raise tuition fees if expenditures were increased. "But income cannot be more than expenses," she said.
Meanwhile, students from these schools can ask for a refund. If school authorities decline the request, the school will be prohibited by the MOE from further raising tuition, she said.
Previous reports have indicated that 27 out of the 30 national universities will raise their tuition charges for the next school year at a rate of between 3 to 10 percent.
Eight will hike their tuition fees by 10 percent, the highest rate allowed according to education ministry regulations.
The tuition adjustment is a significant event for universities, especially for private schools, as tuition fees are the institutions' primary source of income.
In the past, tuition fees at the university level used to be regulated by the MOE. However, the old policy was criticized for its lack of flexibility, which impeded some schools from academic advancement.
As a result, the regulation was altered and the new ordinance took effect from the 1999 academic year to allow each school to establish their own tuition charges. In an effort to ensure better management, the MOE specified that the increase in tuition and miscellaneous fees for private schools cannot surpass a total of 5 percent each year.
Another rule was added this June that universities ought to make public the information concerning tuition charges on the schools' Web sites. Nonetheless, most universities failed to fulfill the requirement this year.
Reports said that public schools had already released the related information on the application brochure for the Joint University Entrance Examination, it was therefore forgivable for them not to have yet placed a public notice on the Web.
However, the information issued on the application brochure provided by private schools was outdated.
"On this ground [private schools] are more than obliged to follow the MOE's command [to publicize the information on the Web]. As it stands, they have utterly ignored [the MOE's] suggestion. We cannot turn a blind eye on such violations. Immediate punitive measures have to be taken to safeguard student selfare," said an official from the MOE.
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