Shorter courses, yet fees have gone up by 14% on average at NUS
By Derrick A Paulo, TODAY | Posted: 16 July 2007 0833 hrs

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Life-long learning may be a national priority now, but as some students have found out, that is not enough to shield them from the double whammy of fee increases and the Goods and Services Tax hike.

Two days before the higher 7-per-cent GST kicked in on July 1, prospective students of the continuing education arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS) received news that fees for many courses had gone up — by an average 14 per cent.

In comparison, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), the other big providers of lifelong learning courses, have not increased course fees for their continuing education and professional development courses this year.

One caller to the MediaCorp Hotline at 6822 2268 described the fee increase as "profiteering". A student told Today he found it unfair how the fee for NUS Extension's part-time basic Mandarin course, for example, is now $650, which is $20 more, when the course duration had been shortened to 40 hours from the original 48.

According to NUS Extension, its fee increases were to offset the "significant increase" in operating and rental costs, although it did not elaborate on how much these have increased.

NUS Extension is located at the Park Mall building, a commercial facility on Penang Road. NTU and SIM, in contrast, conduct continuing education classes on their main or satellite campuses.

NUS Extension's latest fee hike is double the average increase some courses saw in January, the last time it had adjusted its fees — also to offset an increase in operating costs, said its spokesman.

The fee adjustments for its lifelong learning courses, which may last a day or several weeks, are in contrast to the situation for undergraduate studies. NUS, like NTU and the Singapore Management University, announced in January that they would not raise tuition fees this year in view of the upcoming 2-percentage-point increase in GST. In general, undergraduate fee increases are also capped at 10 per cent a year.

Courses at NUS Extension, though, are self-funding and "do not attract any subvention", said its spokesman. "Upward and downward adjustment of course fees are done to ensure that each individual course is self-sustaining," he said, and pointed out that the fees this year for some courses had been reduced.

For some students, the issue is that the fee adjustments cut too close to the increase in GST.

NUS Extension had sent out its 18,000 catalogues in late June, leaving prospective students only a couple of days to avoid paying the higher GST rate.

"There was no warning," said one student who is taking an applied psychology course.

NUS Extension said the adjustments were aligned with the publication of its course catalogue, which is circulated at the beginning of January and July each year. The Centre for Continuing Education at NTU also reviews fees on a half-yearly basis.

NUS Extension's current students, however, were informed about the fee adjustments a few weeks earlier and could enjoy the earlier rates if they enrolled and paid for the courses by June 30.

Still, there were complaints about the introduction of non-refundable registration fees of $50 for courses which cost below $700, and $120 for those above $700.

According to NUS Extension, it had reviewed operating procedures and "realised there had been past instances where students had signed up for courses without paying a registration fee and had then dropped out or failed to show up for classes".

"This had resulted in NUS Extension bearing the expenses required to engage the external trainers, as well as other administrative and logistics charges required to conduct the courses," said the spokesman.

The registration fee is in addition to the latest fee increases.

Not all students were deterred by the higher prices, though.

"Compared to other places, it may be more expensive, but I'm getting positive feedback from colleagues. The most important thing is the learning result," said Mr Denny Hendoko, 24, who registered last week for a Mandarin class.

More than 530 students have registered for courses commencing this month, not including classes which will start later. - TODAY