Kwok Wenxue, 20, who will begin her real estate course in the NUS School of Design and Environment this August, will see her tuition fees increase
increase from $6,360 to $6,620 per annum.

She said she had expected the increase and “would only feel surprised if they announced that the fees are going down.”

“I can still handle the revised fees,” she said, “but I don't think I can say the same for my less fortunate friends to whom every dollar matters.”

The announcement came on March 18 that tuition and hostel fees will increase in the next academic year, marking the end of a one-year freeze on fees implemented to help students tide through last year’s economic recession.

Starting this August, tuition fees will increase by four percent for general courses such as arts and social sciences and by 10 percent for specialised disciplines such as law and pharmacy.

Hostel fees will increase even more, by about 20 percent across the board. A single room, for example, will soon cost $90 per week, up from its previous $75.

These changes will affect only current first-year students and later cohorts.

Like Kwok, most students interviewed were understanding and accepting of the tuition fee increase, but less so about the hostel fee increase, which hits hall residents and international students the hardest.

NUS Provost Tan Eng Chye cited rising operating and manpower costs as the main reasons for both fee increases.

He said the increases will not stop here but will continue into subsequent years, in tandem with the overall rising cost of living in Singapore.

The tuition fee increase itself is already very “modest,” he said, not even sufficient to pay for a two percent increase of staff’s salaries. The school has to rely on other sources, such as government grants, alumni donations and investment returns, to offset its high operating costs.

“If I want to run a top university, I really need good lecturers, and would lecturers be happy with a two percent increase in pay every year?” he asked.

He added, however, that there is a limit to which he will allow hostel fees to increase.

“I think affordability is still important for students living on campus,” he said. “We are very mindful of how much they can afford and how much we can subsidise. It is always a tension and balance.”

Residents, who were already unhappy that NUS’ room rates are considerably higher than those at Nanyang Technological University, now complain that the increment of $60 a month is “alarming” and should have been made more gradual.

Some residents have also decided not to stay on in their hostels next semester as a result of the increase.

Fourth-year Chinese studies major Liang Xiaowen, who now shares a double room with a friend at Temasek Hall, is one of those students.

“I already felt that the fees were expensive before the hike,” she said. “The amount I pay for a single room in NUS can get me an air-conditioned single room in NTU, with money leftover still.”

Hall presidents, such as Lionel Heng from Sheares Hall, are also worried about many of their committed and talented residents leaving.

“We lose residents every year, more so now that opportunities for overseas exchange programmes have increased in recent years. Many of these residents are key individuals who contribute significantly to the halls,” Heng said.

Heng also said it is unfair that Sheares Hall residents face the same fee increase as other halls, since its three-year-old building is still fairly new and does not require as much renovations as the rest.

In fact, when the hostel fee increased from $60 to $75 a week in 2008, the only renovation the building got was a repainting job.

But Tan said that although Sheares Hall might not need a major uplift now, it will in time.

He explained that he wants every hostel to become as self-sustaining as possible. The money not spent in earlier years will be saved for larger-scale upgrading projects in later years when the hostel requires it.

Tan does not think it unfair for students to pay for renovation results they cannot enjoy. What is unfair is “if future students had to stay in run-down apartments and were forced to pay twice or thrice the rent and suffer the inconveniences of doing renovation,” he said.

He added that he is aware that students are unhappy, but accepts it as “the painful part where (he has) to take the flak.”

Tan said the increased hostel fees are still insufficient to cover renovation costs, and the school still has to subsidise.

He also said NTU’s room rates might be cheaper because the school subsidises more of students’ accommodation, but that just means NTU compromises elsewhere such as manpower costs or student-teacher ratios.

While some international students accept the fee hikes as NUS’ effort to improve its quality of education, they wish that both fee increases did not have to happen together.

As it is, Darren Lee, a first-year economics student from Vietnam, barely manages to pay his school fees and living expenses with his combined bursary, part-time employment and allowance from his parents.

The dual fee increase adds about $1,000 more to his expenses every semester, and he is still unsure yet how to pool together enough money to pay his fees.

“I thought if I perform well in school, I might get more help. But it seems that the amount of bursary I get remains the same for all four years,” he said.

“I am hoping for a new financial-aid package to be announced in June, but meanwhile I am also looking for a vacation job,” he added. “If I can earn enough after two months, I still have one month left to spend with my family in Vietnam."

A version of this article appeared in the April issue of The Ridge.

Top

Above: The table shows the increase in tuition fees across different faculties and hostel fees across different halls.