from straitstimeInteractive
Dec 29, 2004
Polytechnics to up fees by $100 next year
It is the first fee hike since 2001; ITE fees to increase by $10
By Sandra Davie
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT
POLYTECHNIC tuition fees are set to go up by $100 from the next academic year after a three-year freeze.
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is also raising its yearly fees by $10 from next June.
Around 50,000 students at the five polytechnics - Singapore, Ngee Ann, Temasek, Nanyang and Republic - will pay $2,050 yearly when the next academic year begins in April.
Mirroring a similar rise in fees at two universities, yesterday's announcement marked the first fee hike for polytechnics since 2001, when fees were raised by 8 per cent from $1,800 to $1,950.
Identical increases were postponed over the last three years because of the economic downturn.
The five polytechnics said in a joint statement that the increases were necessary to meet rising costs. The Government subsidises more than 80 per cent of polytechnics' operating costs, but with the total cost per student having gone up by 31 per cent between 2001 and this year, the fee hike was inevitable.
The institutions assured students that no one would be denied a polytechnic education because of financial difficulties. They would continue to provide a range of financial aid schemes, including tuition fee loans and bursaries for the more financially-strapped students.
Only a small percentage of polytechnic students receive help to meet the costs of their education.
Earlier this year, Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that only 6 per cent of polytechnic students currently take a bank loan to cover tuition fees, up to a limit of 75 per cent. The loan is interest-free until the student graduates, after which the prime interest rates of local banks apply.
The polytechnics did not have a figure on how many students receive bursaries, which are usually given to students whose household incomes are less than $1,500 a month. Singapore Polytechnic, though, said that about 5 per cent of their students receive help.
About one in four of ITE's 19,000 students gets assistance under bursary schemes administered by the institute. ITE, which had until now kept its fees at the same level since 1995, said it will continue to offer help.
Polytechnic students interviewed said they had expected the fee hike, after the recent announcement of increases by the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University.
NUS and NTU undergraduates, other than those in dentistry and medicine, will pay nearly 5 per cent more - an extra $280 a year - when the academic year begins next August.
Two of the five polytechnic students interviewed said they would have to take on more part-time jobs to help their parents meet the costs.
Mr Roland Tan, 19, who is studying engineering at Singapore Polytechnic, said: 'My father does not earn much as a factory supervisor and besides me, he has my two younger sisters to put through school. I have to look at giving more tuition to help him out.'
