To tell it like it is, there is something uncharacteristically oblique about the apparently new policy being implemented on new college freshmen seeking admission to their chosen academic program upon passing so-called UST Entrance Test (USTET).
Offhand, it now seems that passing this USTET is not the sole basis for admission to college but rather in having to pay the non-refundable reservation fee of P5,000 in order to apply for a confirmation of enrolment.
In short, failure to have the P5,000, paid in cash or credit, on the appointed date appears to automatically mean forfeiture of the chance for admission.
But what kind of unthinking is that?
It challenges reflection – a situation where one’s eligibility for having passed the UST entrance college test will be deleted with the non-payment of P5,000 upon application for confirmation.
To begin with, what is that confirmation for when there is a separate schedule for enrolment at which time students really have to pay their tuition and other fees?
UST, sadly stating, is very dishonest, or consider this. When the applicants took the exams, they normally entertain the thought that passing the USTET is the sole basis for admission. Ergo, it cannot be erased or deleted resulting from a non-payment of the reservation fee on the scheduled date of application for confirmation since normally students pay only during enrolment period when tuition and fees have to be completely assessed before any terms of payment can be opted.
This reservation fee therefore comes as advance payment even before the enrolment schedule which must be sometime May. To think that this is non-refundable is doubly disconcerting.
This reservation fee therefore comes, however now obliquely, as the sole and primary basis for admission to the academic program – even if the applicant did not pass the USTET – provided he sort of literally buys the slot by way of reservation fee.
Stated simply, it means that a slot for admission is still being publicly auctioned even when in truth and in fact, someone has already acquired it by having passed the USTET where one pays P500 for an entrance test permit.
Is this not unfair, is this not unjust, is this not gross unthinking on the part of UST that professes the development of a unique Thomasian core of values?
So we just might be seeing the whole university as a huge parking space where to get a slot for admission, one simply pays P5,000 to be able to effectively cancel the right of the original holder and for UST to re-offer it to another interested waitlister who buys his or her admission by the payment of a reservaton fee.
What is that application for confirmation all about when it is already in the database of the University who it should confirm to have passed the entrance text set for the purpose of choosing the students who deserve to get enrolled in the university system?
If this is not stupidity on the part of this vaunted University of Santo Tomas, I don’t know what is.
Even if no one may have yet complained about this policy, it does not mean it is moral or legal. In fact, it is not moral and it is not legal however one looks at it.
What adds insult to injury are the other nuances that go with certain other procedures and the kind of officials or employees in the University who appear to have allergies with parents having to accompany their children to UST.
For instance, the Dean herself of a certain college in UST is entirely lacking in finesse in treating inquiring parents on this new development. There is no such thing as a confirmation of enrolment in more recent past. Why this has been thought of now is really beyond us.
In fact, when one inquires over the phone whether one can pay the P5,000 reservation fee on enrolment date, they say it is no way. They say that if such amount is not paid, the slot for admission is automatically lost as it implies that the applicant is not interested and then consequently, such slot is given to another willing to pay the reservation fee.
Certainly, such stupid equivocation is entirely annoying. That to me is a lot of convoluted logic, come to think of it.
What now happens to the wisdom of a college entrance test if the same slot can be sold to another should the original owner of such slot fail to pay upon confirmation?
It must have been 30 years since I last stepped foot in the University as a faculty member of the College of Architecture & Fine Arts teaching social science courses.
It saddens me to think that in this University where I worked 8 hours a day to get a pay envelope the contents of which I pay back to the Treasurer to finance a mere bachelor of arts degree has not overcome the follies of history.
It saddens me to know that unless this arbitrary policy is immediately shelved, we are seeing a University that deserves to be sanctioned by the Commission on Higher Education for educational malpractice.
Yes, this form of educational malpractice is too revolting.
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‘in this University where I worked 8 hours a day to get a pay envelope the contents of which I pay back to the Treasurer to finance a mere bachelor of arts degree’
Well, what do you expect from a university in Sampaloc operated by friars? Consider the 5,000 pesos reservation fee as tithe, if you must rationalize.
Our case in UP is quite different. We, the ‘creme de la creme’ of the high school graduating classes, must correctly choose which college to attend in order to maximize the peoples’ money.
INB. Iskolar ng Bayan. :)
Sigurista!
It is not only UST but other private HEIs too. Let’s say an applicant who passes the UST exam waits for acceptance in other schools? Let’s say that he/she passes ACET and decides to attend Ateneo? The UST would have to forfeit his/her slot to another.
All this entails money administrative-wise. But I castigate the UST for being dishonest. If it wants to recover its loss from those who decline, then it should factor this in the testing fees.
BTW in UP there is no such thing as a “reservation fee”. FYI, there are UPCAT qualifiers who decline UP’s admission offer. Many of them cross Katipunan Road.
I’m sure you did not mean it because you are nag-sisimula pa lang as a writer, but it is wrong this thing — passing this USTET is the sole basis for admission to college???
Unless you are a full-tuition-and-fees scholar, guess what? You don’t get in without pay-in’.
Neilsky:
This is ridiculous. If the applicant did not pass the USTET, he would not even be asked to pay the reservation fee. Nielsky, you are being far too creative with the facts.
Passing the USTET means you’re qualified to enroll. Paying the reservation fee only means that a slot will be held for you, because even if you are qualified, it doesn’t necessarily mean that UST is obligated to hold a slot for you. For a former faculty member, as you claim, it is surpassing strange that you should forget this.
Blackshama: How exactly is UST being dishonest? By requiring a reservation fee? That’s ridiculous. Oh, and BTW, UST is a private institution, so that comparison with UP might not be exactly copacetic.
you took the words right out of my mouth, rom, but i couldn’t have said it better. this former “faculty member” (what a shame!) obviously doesn’t believe that, as a private university, ust has the right to set its own rules and policies concerning enrollment, among other things, within the laws and regulations that other similar institutions are subject to. i think this is an inflammatory article designed to unfairly put ust under public contempt and ridicule, if not to make it a subject of public protest a la edsa “ocho-ocho” (to borrow a term from benigno).
Now why should a university require a “reservation fee” unless it accepts more applicants than it can host? Let’s say it has 1000 places and 1000 students accept the admission offer. Then it is OK.
Let’s say it has 1000 places and only 900 students accept the admission offer then it is still OK but more resources may need to be spent to admit 100 more.
Let’s say it has only 1000 places but accepts 2000 students? Then you really need that reservation fee to make sure you have a placement. Nonetheless UST seems to have made its academic placement a commodity. This reservation fee is no different from a lay away plan that allows the merchant to hold the commodity for you until full payment.
I’m not saying that UST is offering more placements than it can host but the logic behind that reservation fee is questionable.
In some schools, freshies pay their semester fees upfront much earlier than other students. If they decide to cancel enrollment, then the school has the right not to refund all of the fees. If the freshie doesn’t want to accept the admission offer then it need not pay the fees at all and he/she should notify the school. In fact a school can have a deadline that anyone who doesn’t confirm acceptance of a placement by a certain date will forfeit their slot. UP has this policy and I know of qualifiers who failed to notify the university by the deadline to have been refused admission.
What has been lost is a sense of trust on part of the prospective student and the university and that we need cash to seal the deal. I believe that this is very unfortunate for the Royal and Pontifical University.
but the idea of accepting more students than spots is sound right? after all, you expect some of these guys to transfer to another school if they get accepted elsewhere. accepting exactly the correct number will always lead to undershooting…
my problem is the unrefundable nature of it. if the logic is that the money is used defray some cost of filling up a spot. but once student has made a decision, then there is no longer any need for the money.
gabbyd, ensuring that a spot will be held and not given to another qualified applicant from among hundreds who are waiting in the wings has a VALUE that is worth the expense. i don’t think a non-refundable fee, whether or not the applicant eventually attends the school, is unreasonable. ust is not a cheap institution. one gets what one pays for.
ust, as all other schools, needs revenue to maintain its very long tradition of excellence – one that honed a rizal, mabini, jacinto, quezon, osmena, macapagal, arellano, concepcion, narvasa and benipayo, among countless others. 5,000 pesos is a lot of money for any student but a relatively small price to pay for an assurance of admission. in any event, the market dictates the cost of anything of value.
Happy sesquicentennial to the Ateneo de Manila! BTW it was the Ateneo that really honed Rizal. The UST? well he did attend it but immortalized it in his El Filibusterismo chapter entitle “The Class in Physics”.
(Compare this to his plaudit on the way to Bagumbayan. “The Ateneo, that’s where I spend my happiest moments.”
If there is someone who really put the Royal and Pontifical University to public ridicule and bad light, it is no other than but Jose Rizal. I don’t think Nielsky is placing the UST in bad light at all. What he wants is honest debate. And this debate extends beyond UST but to the admission policies of many private schools.
The Dominicans may have atoned for their shortcomings in Rizal’s education by honoring Rizal with a plaque on the Arch of the Centuries.
@bencard
yeah, i’m totally onboard with the value of a ‘reservation fee’. the idea of accepting more kids than openings is, to me, a sound idea.
my recommendation would be to make it refundable after the student has made a binding decision. similar to blackshama’s idea, maybe they can take it out of tuition.
either you are forgetting, or deliberately ignoring, the situation where 5,000 prospective student make the entrance test out of 10,000, and there are only 1,000 available seats. that means 4,000 qualified would-be students are on the waiting list. would it not make sense for the school to “reserve” enrollment only to the first 1,000 who make a commitment and pay a set reservation fee? those who change their mind forfeit the fee and the vacated slot is given to the next interested party in the waiting list. what is so unfair about that, or as you put it, dishonest?
those who want to have it both ways (paseguro) don’t get my sympathy.
between a ‘sigurista’ school and a ‘sigurista’ student my sympathy is with the school. because business has to make profit too. while the student can go to hell. now I don’t know whether that’s satire or sarcasm.
Mike,
You missed the point.
I mean every word I say – in the normal course of things, the sole basis for one’s admission to the university is one’s passing the college entrance test designed to get the students they desire to have – say matalino.
On a different note, it is of no moment whether or not, I am just a beginning writer. Besides, there is no way to determine that, is there?
The scholar you rubbed in has no connection whatsoever with the issue touched – just nothing and so obviously you appear to be a beginning student in philosophy.
Thanks for your comment mike.
adventurero,
It is no true that UP students do not pay tuition and other fees – they do.
They do not cease to be Isko ng Bayan precisely because somehow their education is under state subsidy.
The present scheme almost makes sure everybody pays tuition with the few exceptions of those found to be in the base of the social pyramid.
Tell me, which one is more correct – creme a la creme, or creme de la creme?
Rom,
I have to correct you. I am not being creative with my facts.
First, the point is precisely this – why pay for reservation fee when one actually passed the USTET and therefore is qualified to enrol? But UST did just that. Why? They say they will give it to another applicant interested to pay the reservation fee to get the ‘abandoned’ slot. It is not even an ‘abandoned’ slot until classes really started. Besides there is a thing called late enrolment, doesn’t it?
Second, it is unfair to say as ‘surpassing strange’ for a one claiming to be UST’s former faculty member to know about this. Well, yes. Why? Because there had never been a policy like this before – this is of recent Marxist origin.
Rom, I believe, we all miss you here. Where can I find you? Just kidding.
Neilsky:
Not being creative? Ok. How about misrepresenting the facts?
As for the other one, I wasn’t referring to the reservation fee. I was referring to the fact that “even if you are qualified, it doesn’t necessarily mean that UST is obligated to hold a slot for you.” I can’t believe that, as a former faculty member, you weren’t aware of that fact.
Gabby,
These are hard times and for the P5k reservation fee to be non-refundable is to me patently immoral and illegal however they may try to rationalize some weakness in their economic survey or projections. Offhand, that must be more than 10% of the total amount one student pays for one semester. Who gives away P5k these days, pray tell?
oh, yeah, i think there is no reason for it to be unrefundable. once the student has paid the tuition, the reservation fee should be given back.
the purpose of the 5k is to ensure (as much as possible) that the student pushes thru with enrolling in the school, and not transfer out.
once the student has paid the tuition, the 5k should be returned as its served its orig purpose.
blackshama,
If only I have a way, I want this unnecessary part of the admission policy be removed. If you were the chairman of CHED, what would you have done?
Dicey question. Admission policy is an academic freedom turf of a school. The state can’t really interfere with that. CHED can only set and regulate standards.
Furthermore UST has deregulated status.
However according the the law that created CHED it has to ensure
“Take appropriate steps to ensure that education shall be accessible to all”
CHED can only apply moral suasion. Now try doing that to the Dominicans!
CHED’s hand here is weak. Who has the strong hand? The parents of UST students! They are the best party to do this.
In the larger context of academic freedom, this situation is a misapplication.
I think the best solution for this problem is to strenghthen our public school system. Kung marami lang sana tayo na mga astig na State Colleges and Universities sa Metro Manila at sa lahat ng mga province na pwede nating ipang tapat sa UST, Ateneo, La Salle, then mahihirapan ang mga ito na maglabas ng mga unfair na policies.
The government must really be serious in fixing the public education system
i don’t think so. as blackshama wrote, the education consensus is that we have TOO MANY scu’s.
also, the reservation fee issue will exist whatever the distribution of schools, as long as there are more kids than open slots.
for quality education, such as UST, that will always be the case, even assuming you have a huge fringe amount of lower quality educational alternatives.
We have too many SCUs of poor standard.
No, what I mean is not to add more SCUs but to strengthen the current SCUs that we already have. Kumbaga, ibigay ang tamang pondo sa SUCs; ‘pag may nakalaan ng pondo, dapat ibigay talaga ‘yun sa mga SUCs at wag sa bulsa ng kung sino sino diyan; at dapat gastusin ng tama ang perang ibinigay ng SCUs.
Sa ganoong paraan, mapapalakas natin ang existing SCUs para may panlaban sa abuso ng private schools. At para may matakbuhan naman na matinong schools ‘yung mga mahihirap nating kababayan.
Sa siste ngayon e, deregulated ang private schools. Unless talaga na may ginawa ang School admin ng policies na taliwas sa mga batas natin ay wala tayong magagawa but i-boycott sila ng mga estudyante at parents.
And direktang makokontrol ng Government natin ay ‘yung mga SCUs at doon tayo makagagawa ng direktang pagbabago.
blackshama @ 11:39am, i don’t care how rizal regarded the ust friars in the 17th century. he might not have liked them but still ust gave him his initial college experience that made him a doctor and an intellectual, and eventually the national hero and martyr. I don’t think he would be in a position (wherever he is now) to put present-day ust to “public contempt and ridicule” today, would he?
at any rate, i have no intention of making this a “pataasan ng ihi” between ust and ateneo or whatever. honest debate? then why single out ust? and why use words like “dishonest” or “unfair” or “educational malpractice”, among other contemptible descriptions?
Rom,
I think it is not ordinarily correct to say that even if one qualified for having passed the USTET – - that the school is not obligated to hold a slot for the qualifier. To my mind, it is unless you wish to make useless differentiation between qualified to enrol and one such school being obligated to hold the slot of the qualifier. It does not make sense.
huh? Rom’s point is that in your original blog (u are nielsky right?) you said:
“This reservation fee therefore comes, however now obliquely, as the sole and primary basis for admission to the academic program – even if the applicant did not pass the USTET –”
the problem here is “sole and primary”; i.e. the only determinant of getting in. it is NOT true that even if the applicant did NOT pass the USTET that the reservation fee would allow one to be admitted to the academic program.
di ba?
Off-topic, Neilsky, but as of last count, youve had three ‘personae’ in FV that Im aware of, karlpopper and Primer-something being the other two. Is there a particular reason for this?
jeg, garbage by any other name would still stink. one can use a hundred different aliases but the style and muddled thinking cannot be concealed, right?
‘Is there a particular reason for this?’
Each person has three lives:
1. The Public
2. The Private
3. The Secret
Choose your wild. :)
bencard,
I don’t understand why you always wants to give yourself away.
You are here just always trying to make sense out of nothing.
If there is a shame or garbage here, it must be and your antiquated worldviews that don’t hold water – not even in legal circles.
gabby,
You must have quoted it in full since what you left is the one that defines what sought to be clarified.
It becomes the consequence or why give one slot intended for a legitimate holder to someone else other than the legitimate holder, in this case, the original qualifier?
I don’t buy the view that there are more than one legitimate holder to one slot.
huh? i quoted the sentence that definitely is illogical, based on what you yourself wrote earlier.
i just wanted to tell you that that sentence you wrote does not make sense, even as i (think i ) understand what you want to say in the rest of the blog post.
note, the words “sole and primary”. in other words, you claim that the MONEY is the only determinant. this cant be right.
yun lang naman.
forget it, gab. :D
adventuro,
that thing has already been explained in the past, it is not for reasons you might think.
jeg,
undertake to show what is off-topic, if you don’t mind?
It is customary, as a matter of courtesy in internet fora, to announce that one’s question is off-topic to alert readers that they can skip the post as it does not pertain to the topic at hand. Maybe youre new to the conventions? In any case, what’s off topic is my question: Why the three (at least) nicknames when only one will suffice?
the problem with the solutions always proposed goes back to strengthening the public education system.
it is like treating a small wound with a surgery.
best to do is address the problem itself.
is it illegal, is it unethical or is it also practised by some industries like real estate, like lay-away plan something.
from the viewpoint of administration this reservation fee is part in planning as to the size of the class, the faculty members load of subjects for the semesters and use of physical resources.
although the price seemed high, the students who seek entrance to UST know already how much money is involved in deciding whether to enroll or not.
just think of a college where the expectation of enrollment is high and all of a sudden, the enrollement did not meet the projection.
Nielsky (aka karlpopper????):
You picked the wrong battle (in my opinion).
The one to emote :razz: against (in my opinion) is this P280.00 per semester for drug testing. They even charge architectural students the fee. So nurses and lawyers may be into drugs but architects, NO, NO, NO!!! What a rip-off! :mrgreen:
funny thing jeg, one bencard even has to bite your ‘bait’? Rather than debate the issue at hand, why resort to argumentum ad hominem?
Those who have nothing better to add, can always shut up.
You know you have been ripped off if your son/daughter is a UST student who has not a drug test this semester or last semester. And being ripped off is not a good thing, I hope you know that.
…unless, of course, one pays P280 per semester to be exempted from having to submit to drug testing. Then that is a good deal. :roll:
up,
I had a blog on drug testing earlier on. I’m not sure how easy you can find it here. thanks
up,
I’m still thinking over whether to enrol my child unless a prospective scholarship takes care of the reservation fee this early?
don’t!!
Ca t,
If is not as if UST is not in existence for over a hundred years as to even miss on its ‘futuristic programmes’ in the best tradition of Lakatos.
And does UST refund the P1000-per-semester library fee when a student does not use the library? Pinoys should not be charged for a facility they do not use. Google-search, most people 45-years and younger know, not only is free. Google-search has produced more term papers and college term papers for sure.
And what again is the P106.20-community-service fee that UST charges per semester?
Speak English please. Do I get the impression that your are referring to projection of enrollment in terms of planning?
the problem with us, is simple problem that needs simple solution is made difficult because we like to intellectualize everything.
preparing schedules is like preparing the venue of a wedding party. the host needs RSVP in order to know in advance how many would be reserved and how many would be provided for overflow.
those who have not experienced this kind of planning would not appreciate or understand the complications of having to deal with another factor that mathematics can not solve–human factor.
Ca t,
Sorry, typo error. It is not as if …
In any case, the point there should be taken in the context of its more social import than the mathematical which can be left to actuarial work.
The analogy is of course a host of differences, not the close example to show. I think it is entirely not about planning which in itself is a form of intellectualizing.
Truth to tell, the way it looks to me, the policy leaves no option to anyone and that is what is not too liberating. Poor people like us may really have to be in a kind of problem solving over a trivial matter of P5k and some can always dismiss it as intellectualizing. So be it.
There is nothing in the website that delves on a policy on reservation fee – just nothing.
In any case, there were two schemes in the payment of school fees, namely:
1. Payment in full
2. Payment in installment
If on installment, 40% is paid upon enrolment, 40% before prelims, and 20% before finals.
It is simple really.
Hey you people from public schools like UP should stop fretting on the issue. First, UST is a private organization and has the right to impose its own rules and if you don’t agree then its your option to back off and enroll with a school living on taxpayers’ money. Second, if one intends to enroll with a private school, he/she should make sure he/she has the financial means and not fret about a measly 5,000 pesos like those from public schools who are financed by the Filipino taxpayers. Obviously, these guys complaining about a MEASLY 5,000 peso reservation fee are those who pretend to be able to study in a private school knowing its going to entail a lot of money rather than go public.
Agree with jermenz, let’s not forget that the Dominicans are the cousins of Robinhood.
The measly P5k is not really the point here, assuming it can be labelled ‘measly’ – something else.
Private schools are now pitted against public schools in the entire educational landscape?
Back off? If it would make some people happy that only the moneyed class has access to private education, well, suit yourself.
we are not in the same wave length because you refuse to see the other perspectives.
when i say planning, i am referring to schedules of classes/faculty, rooms, and time. you do not need math here. what you need are simple numbers, how many passed and how many are committed by making reservation.
The worst problem that the college may have is to dissolve classes which have no students because the projected enrollment, (using straight-line-parabolic, semi-parabolic by some math genius) based on the past data did not materialize). The students did not enroll because they were accepted in other universities.
Another problem is the lack of available lecturers/instructors even the classes have already begun.
Have you ever heard about reservation fee when you want to use a venue? Have you ever heard of earnest moneyor advance payment for reservation when you buy some real estate?
If I am going to intellectualize in our discussion, i would be discussing about opportunity cost. My response is simple. If you do not understand, may be because you have not given planning a more serious look.
At the rate things are going with increasing corporatization, it is indeed possible that the University of the Philippines may go along the way of UST and other private schools in its admission policies. That’s why we alums of the national university have to fret over the Royal and Pontifical University!
Remember that UP is the most exclusive school in the Philippines!
I sure got your point Ca t but just unsure how fairly well it compares with the illustration cited. Sometimes, even the greatest plans have some unintended consequences that could have been overlooked.
Ca_t,
he he. While some delves on sentence length, word length, you draw whatever you want to draw on so-called wavelength?
Speaking of planning, modesty aside, I am part of a consulting firm that did a masterplan for the proposed “New Province of Oriental Mindoro”.
eto pa, pag public school ka. hindi madaling makapasa, mas inuuna nila ang mga private
the logic..
approx 40,000 took the exam
the university can only accomodate 10,000 freshies
30,000 passed
10,000 got into the quota out of the 30k who passed.. the remaining 20k still hopes for a slot since they passed the exam…
out of the 10k who got into the quota.. not all of them are really interested to enroll
how can the institution be sure who to accomodate??? (for sure words is not enough)
you have to pay the reservation.. 5000 pesos.. which will soon be deducted to your total fees…
remember the university rejected the 20,000 applicants who also passed the exam.. unfortunately some applicants who got the higher scores are not interested… thats why you really have to pay your reservation fee as long as your payments shall be deducted to the total fees,, this applies to most colleges or universities… peace!
Point here – it's non-refundable if you don't push through and P5k goes as donation?
Of course it’s not refundable. (That’s why they call it a RESERVATION fee) If the school did make it refundable then every one who changed their mind can just refund their money and leave the other wait listed students at a loss because they already looked for another
Why would you pay a reservation fee if you are not interested to enroll? Simple as that.