By Christine F. Herrera. As 111 state colleges and universities were set to observe a nationwide moratorium on tuition increases this year, student and youth groups on Sunday urged the 451 of the 1,604 private schools to follow suit.
Kabataan, League of Filipino Students and the National Union of Students of the Philippines and other youth organizations demanded that the Commission on Higher Education reject the applications of 451 private schools for a 5 percent to 10 percent increase in tuition.
At the same time, the groups welcomed the announcement of the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges to impose a nationwide tuition hike moratorium for the incoming school year, including those that already approved increases for this year. Read more...

By Ron Friedman. ‘We will battle to protect education in the country,’ promises student union head. Alate night meeting between Finance Ministry officials and student leaders Monday revealed that the treasury is planning a multi-million shekel cut to the higher education budget that will lead to a major increase of university tuition costs, and likely to department closures and faculty firings. The deputy head of the ministry’s budget department Yoni Regev told National Student Union head Uri Rashtik that the planned cuts could reach hundreds of millions of shekels, which in turn would lead to a double-digit increase in tuition costs starting the next academic year, Channel 10 reported. Read more...

A university in the eastern Germany state of Saxony has become the first to raise tuition fees drastically for non-EU foreign students. The fee hike from €220 to €3,600 each year could set a nationwide precedent. Germany has long been a haven for foreign students seeking solid education without the astronomical prices demanded elsewhere, wrote the website of Der Spiegel magazine on Thursday.
Germany's 186,000 international students currently pay the same as locals - typically a maximum of a few hundred euros a semester, which usually includes the price of a semester transport ticket and health insurance.
Yet when Saxony's government gave the state's universities the choice from the beginning of this year to decide whether to demand higher fees from non-EU foreign students, many thought it could pave the way for the initiative to go nationwide. Read more...

It was a little more difficult this year to get admitted to an Ivy League school, as tens of thousands of college applicants learned Thursday evening.
Seven of the eight colleges and universities that make up the Ivy League have lowered their acceptance rates since last year. The trend to tiptoe toward increased selectivity seems to hold true whether the institution received more or fewer applications than last year.
A word of caution before we crunch the numbers: Although these admission statistics may seem startling, even prohibitive, prospective students and parents would be wise to remember that a quality college education is still within reach. Read more...

By Arwyn Jones. Finance directors of Welsh universities say the Welsh government's student fees subsidies are leaving their sector with an uncertain financial future. They have told BBC Wales they can not be sure there will be enough money left for them after the subsidising of Welsh students who study elsewhere in the UK.
Welsh students pay fees of no more than £3,500 wherever they study, with the Welsh government supplying the rest. The Welsh government says its policy is "fully costed and sustainable".
The Welsh Higher Education Finance Directors Group says that no-one knows from year to year how many Welsh students will choose to study in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Read more...

When it comes to paying for the education they need to get on with their lives, Ontario’s college and university students are maxed out. Since 2006, tuition fees have risen by five per cent a year, forcing distraught students to dig themselves ever deeper into a debt hole and prompting them to cry out with increasing volume that enough is enough. To his credit, Ontario’s new Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Brad Duguid, is listening. And although he’s unlikely to freeze tuition, as many student leaders unreasonably demand, he appears poised to hold future increases below five per cent — possibly to one per cent on top of the rate of inflation.
That step would be an appropriate one, yet it will have to be followed by more movement by the Liberal government. While the average university undergraduate paid $4,933 a year in 2005-06, by the start of the current school year, that payout had risen to $7,180 — an increase that dwarfs any rise in inflation. Ontario’s tuition is now by far the most expensive in Canada. Read more...