Assumption U liberalizes tuition payment scheme (Sun.Star, Monday, October 22, 2007)

Assumption U liberalizes tuition payment scheme

By Ian Ocampo Flora

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- A premiere Catholic school here has announced the “liberalization” of its school fees in a bid to strengthen its enrollment standing.

The University of the Assumption (UA) on Saturday announced that they will be changing their payment schemes to make enrollment more accessible to majority of its students.

In a memorandum issued by UA’s new rector Roberto Mallari D.D., the university is reaffirming its commitment to “provide quality Christian education to the poor.”

This after the university experienced a “slight decline” in enrollment last school year. According to Dr. Ruth Balajadia-Ducut, director for academic research, the move was prompted after the university conducted a comparative survey with other leading universities in the province.

“People and some students have this perception that UA has a high tuition, but the truth is we have one of the lowest fees in the province,” Ducut said.

“The previous first payment was a bit high because we wanted the succeeding payments to be lower, but we saw that it was a bit difficult for the parents and students. Now we have ‘liberalized’ the payment scheme,” Ducut said, stressing that the school understands the current economic condition of most families.

Effective this second semester, first payment payable upon enrollment is pegged at P5,000 for all programs and levels in all colleges except for the College of Nursing. Due to operational considerations the initial payment for students under the nursing course is at P8,000.

Diana Pangilinan, coordinator for academic research, assured that the liberalization of payment schemes will not affect the quality of education in the institution.

“The liberalization scheme does not mean that we are sacrificing the educational quality of our programs,” Pangilinan said