Three universities will charge increased tuition fees for this year.
These are the Divine Word University, University of PNG and University of Goroka.
A comparison on UPNG for the year 2021 and 2022 fee structures shows that the increases vary from two to 13 per cent depending on the programs or courses offered.
Divine Word University has a 20 per cent increase on some programs, 40 per cent on others while a 50 per cent increase for health science programs.
The University of Goroka has a 3. 7 per cent increase in its fees for all the programs.
The newly established Western Pacific University also confirmed that its fee structure from 2021 will be applied this year.
UPNG SRC president Melvin Tinol said that the new school fee structure is not in the best interest of the wider stakeholders who are students and parents.
He raised concerns that parents would have to dig deeper to pay more during this trying times induced by COVID-19 and the current economic downturn.
Parents have also raised concerns over the increases claiming that the impact of COVID -19 from last year, including the current financial constrains had hit families and sponsors hard.
Parents and sponsors of students who benefit from government scholarships like TESAS are fortunate enough, however, for those of us with outstanding loans, we will have to go to great lengths to afford this fee increase.
Judy Nako, mother
She called for some leniency to accommodate the students.
Divine Word University president Professor Fr Philip Gibbs in justifying the increase said the cost of running the university had contributed to the increase in the 2022 fees.
It has been the same fee structure for many years, but with the increase in the Consumer Price Index and other increases in costs, DWU had to increase the school fees this year.
Fr Gibbs
He said DWU had been generous to the students by charging them less than the actual cost of studying certain programs.
The current increase would still see students paying less than the actual cost of certain programs. For example, the cost of studying medicine is K55,570.
We find that the total cost of a residential student studying medicine for a year is K55,570.00.
The university gives a generous subsidy and some students get scholarships, so students end up having to pay only K18,900 for full year training in the medical faculty.
Fr Gibbs
University of Goroka Vice Chancellor Dr Teng Waninga declined to comment as he was still on leave. Response from the UPNG Vice Chancellor was still pending.
The Post-Courier was unable to reach PNG University of Technology for comments on its 2022 enrollment and school fee.
According to the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST), in 2021, the average cost of Higher Education student per year is K30,000.
Considering the increases in tax and price of goods and services, the average cost of per student should go up by now.