Students protest universities’ tuition fee hike plans

Student members of the Alliance Against the Commoditisation of Education last week staged a protest outside the Ministry of Education in Taipei, calling on the ministry to reject applications by universities to increase tuition fees, writes Abraham Gerber for Taipei Times.

The protests come as 23 universities have applied to raise tuition by between 1.5% and 3.5% this year, following a five-year freeze.

A student surnamed Chen said that the proposed increases would unfairly impact low-income households, forcing students from these families to spend more time working than studying. 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 universities to rely on tuition for funding.
Full report on the Taipei Times site