Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Patricia announces that tuition in all state colleges and universities (SUCs) will now be free.
This comes, as a result of the lawmakers’ approval of the additional P 8.3-billion proposed budget for CHED for 2017 that will enable it to implement a tuition-free policy in SUCs.
“All state colleges and universities are going to be asked or instructed not to collect tuition,” Licuanan said.
Nevertheless, Licuanan noted that there will still be some charges that college students need to pay.
Members of the House of Representatives had originally wanted to give the additional P 8.3-billion fund to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for projects in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
But during the bicameral conference committee meeting, the senators blocked the move and saw the fund as 'pork barrel.'
Senator Panfilo Lacson had said, the ARMM, under its Organic Act, already has its own DPWH regional office with a separate allocation.
The House members eventually adopted the senate version of the proposed 2017 national budget to avoid a deadlock.
