CHED DBM Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2017 - 1
CHED DBM Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2017 - 1
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1.0 RATIONALE
The guidelines on the grant of Free Tuition 2017, jointly issued by the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), aim to
ensure proper implementation of the special provisions in the 2017 General
Appropriations Act (GAA) subject to the Conditional Implementation ordered by the
President.
The specific statements in the 2017 GAA and the Conditional Implementation are as
follows:
1.1 Special Provision No. 2 under Other Executive Offices (0E0)-CHED, Volume I-B, page
272
The specific guidelines and procedures for the use of this fund shall
be issued by the CHED and the DBM in consultation with the SUCs.
1.2 Special Provision No. 1 under SUCs, Special Provision(s) Applicable to the SUCs,
Volume I-A, page 963
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2018, no tuition fee shall be collected from undergraduate
students. The SUCs shall charge the Higher Education Support Fund
in lieu of the income from tuition fees.
All income from tuition fees and other school charges shall be
retained and deposited by SUCs in an authorized government
depository bank. In case there are no government banks in the
locality, such income may be deposited in non-government banks,
subject to BSP Circular No. 110 dated June 14, 1996.
The SUCs shall prepare and submit to the DBM not later than
November 15 of the preceding year the annual operating budget
for the current year covering said income, and the corresponding
expenditures. Likewise, it shall submit to the DBM not later than
March 1 of the current year its audited financial statement for the
immediately preceding year. The presidents of SUCs and their web
administrators or his/her equivalent shall be responsible for
ensuring that the foregoing documents are likewise posted on the
SUC websites.
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1.3 Conditional Implementation ordered by the President
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The President, prior to signing the 2017 GAA on 22" of December 2016, placed
the foregoing special provisions under CONDITIONAL IMPLEMENTATION.
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Specifically, the content of the President's message is as follows:
Accordingly, the CHED and the DBM shall issue the necessary
guidelines which shall include, among others, the standards and
procedure for entitlement and availment of free tuition by students
of SUCs as well as proper mechanism for the SUCs to tap the Higher
Education Support Fund.
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2.0 PROGRAM TITLE
The grant shall be known as the 2017 Free Tuition Policy in SUCs; it shall henceforth be
referred to as "Free Tuition 2017".
3.0 COVERAGE
The policy shall cover all Filipino students enrolling in undergraduate course programs in
State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) for the Academic Year 2017-2018, subject to the
prioritization directive of the President and the availability of funds in the Higher Education
Support Fund (HESE).
For a more thorough understanding of these guidelines, the following terms are defined:
4.1 Academically-able refers to enrolling students who pass the academic and retention
standards of the SUCs;
4.2 Billable Budget Ceiling refers to the maximum amount an SUC can bill CHED per
semester to pay for the tuition subsidies under Free Tuition 2017;
4.3 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) refers to a document which
reflects the annual program of estimated expenditures of the National Government
accompanied by an estimate of expected sources of financing, which is constitutionally
mandated to be submitted by the executive branch to the legislature to support the
National Budget proposal;
4.4 Continuing students refers to enrolling students in an SUC who were enrolled in the
same SUC in the previous semester;
4.5 Documentations for proof of income refers to Income Tax Return (ITR), BIR Form
2316, BIR Certificate of Exemption from Filing of ITR, Barangay Certificate of Indigency,
Certification from the DSWD, Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) Certificate, Employment
Contract for OFWs, and other government-issued documents that indicate the income
earnings of member(s) of the household who would be responsible for the financing
of the student's cost of education;
4.7 New Enrollees refers to students enrolling in the SUC for the first time;
4.8 Other Outstanding School Fees refers to fees which cover other necessary costs
supportive of instruction, including but not limited to medical and dental, athletic,
library, laboratory, and miscellaneous fees;
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of the program. The 4Ps is a human development measure of the national government
that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health,
nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18;
4.10 Returning students refers to enrolling students in an SUC who were not enrolled in
the regular semester before the current one, but were enrolled in the same SUC at
least once in previous semesters;
4.11 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) refers to public Higher Education Institutions
(HEls) which are financed and maintained by the national government, and are
governed by their respective independent boards of trustees or regents in accordance
with the laws that created these;
4.13 Total Annual Benefit Amount refers to the total amount of benefits provided to each
student by any government-funded StuFAP for a specific Academic Year;
4.14 Tuition refers to matriculation fees or school charges per unit or units of the subjects
or courses enrolled in by a student as indicated in the prospectuses of the SUCs, which
may either be on a term or yearly basis;
4.15 Tuition Subsidy refers to the amount of tuition fees not charged to students, in light
of Free Tuition 2017, and charged instead to the HESF or the appropriate StuFAPs;
4.16 Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) refers
to the harmonized and state-run system of higher education and technical-vocational
scholarships, grants-in-aid, student loans, and other modalities of StuFAP under the
UniFAST Act (Republic Act No. 10687).
The number of students who may avail of the tuition subsidy shall be determined by
the estimated tuition income of the SUC stated in Table G of the 2017 BESF. Only
academically-able students shall be considered for the Free Tuition 2017.
After all StuFAP beneficiaries have been enrolled, students shall be grouped into (1)
continuing and (2) new enrollees and returning.
The priority are the continuing students and shall be given the Free Tuition slots in the
following order, subject to the availability of the Free Tuition funds:
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Graduating students with one semester remaining, regardless of household per
capita income;
Graduating students with one academic year remaining, regardless of household
per capita income;
Non-graduating students who belong to a household that is or was a beneficiary of
4Ps;
Non-graduating students who were never part of a household that is or was a
beneficiary of 4Ps but still included in the Listahanan 2.0, ranked according to their
estimated per capita household income; and
Non-graduating students ranked according to their per capita household income
based on submitted documentation(s) for proof of income.
If there are remaining Free Tuition funds, new enrollees and returning students shall
likewise be given the corresponding Free Tuition slots in the following order:
All SUCs shall assess students' eligibility to Free Tuition 2017 as early as four weeks
prior to the usual enrollment period of the SUCs.
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During the assessment period:
1. Students shall submit the required documents for the assessment, namely:
Forms of identification usually accepted by the SUC;
Completed registration forms;
4Ps identification card of the household member grantee, if applicable; and
Documentation(s) for proof of income.
2. The SUCs shall validate whether or not students are beneficiaries of any StuFAP and
indicate the total annual benefit amount received by the student.
3. Before the opening of the formal enrollment period, SUCs shall rank all assessed
students according to the student prioritization procedure of Free Tuition 2017.
Existing enrollment procedures of SUCs shall largely be observed. However, the SUCs
should inform the students at the earliest possible time whether they qualify for the
tuition subsidy or not, and try to provide the best options for those who cannot be
accommodated by any government financial assistance program.
The major change in the enrollment procedures shall be that tuition fees will not be
collected from qualified students but charged to the HESF or to the StuFAP(s), if the
student is a beneficiary of government StuFAPs with total annual benefit amount
higher than P15,000.
Other outstanding fees due to the SUCs can be collected from the students, or to the
corresponding StuFAP allocations, if the student is a StuFAP beneficiary.
6.1 The funding requirements for Free Tuition 2017 shall be sourced from the HESF, in the
total amount of Eight Billion Pesos (P8,000,000,000.00), lodged under the CV 2017
Budget of CHED.
6.1.1 The budget allocation for each SUC (Annex 1) shall be based on the estimated
tuition fee income that the SUC stated in Table G of the 2017 Budget of
Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF).
6.1.2 It shall serve as the budget ceiling that each SUC can charge the CV 2017 HESF.
6.2 The release of Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) and Notice of Cash Allocation
(NCA) to CHED shall be subject to the submission of a special budget request supported
by the following:
Physical Plan
Financial Plan
Monthly Disbursement Program
6.3 The SUCs shall bill the CHED for the total tuition subsidies awarded to students, subject
to their budget ceiling per semester. The budget ceiling per semester shall not exceed
50% of the budget allocated to the SUC.
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6.4 The billing statement should include or be accompanied by documents that contain
the following information:
Names and contact details of each student enrolled and benefitting from Free
Tuition 2017
Program / Course of study of each student, including specific subjects enrolled
in and the corresponding number of units
Certification from the registrar for official enrollment of the student
6.5 Utilization of the fund shall be subject to the usual budgeting, accounting, and auditing
rules and regulations.
One-half of one percent (0.5%) of the HESF referred to in item 6.1 shall be provided to
CHED to cover the conduct of supplemental activities that will help ensure the proper
implementation of Free Tuition 2017, including but not limited to: advocacy and
promotions, technical assistance, and monitoring and evaluation.
All the reports required from SUCs, CHEDR0s, and CHED in the Free Tuition 2017 Guidelines
are summarized below:
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Within one month SUCs to submit Submit CHED offices and
after the end of 2nd "Billing "Monitoring personnel tasked with
semester Statement" with Accomplishment monitoring Free Tuition
enrollment period all attachments Report" to CHED 2017 to submit
to CHED before "Monitoring
the 15th of the Accomplishment Report"
month to the Office of the
Chairperson and to the
CHED UniFAST Secretariat
Interpretation of the provisions in this Joint Circular, including cases not covered herein,
shall be referred to the CHED Central Office for final resolution by the CHED, SUCs, and
DBM.
The DBM and CHED shall adopt a strict policy on transparency and accountability in the
disbursement of the funds and shall be governed by the existing laws.
The SUCs shall submit to the CHED, DBM, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
the President of the Senate of the Philippines, the House Committee on Appropriations,
and the Senate Committee on Finance, either in printed form or by way of electronic
document, quarterly reports on the utilization of funds, including the lists of beneficiaries.
The President of the SUCs and their web administrators or their equivalent shall be
responsible for ensuring that said quarterly reports are likewise posted on the SUCs
website.
If, for any reason, any part or provision of this joint circular is declared invalid or
unconstitutional, any part or provision not affected thereby shall remain in full force and
effect.
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12.0 REPEALING CLAUSE
All or other issuances that are inconsistent with this joint circular are hereby repealed
or amended accordingly.
13.0 EFFECTIVITY
This joint circular shall take effect immediately upon publication in the Official
Gazette or in a newspaper with general circulation.
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PATRICIA B. LICUANAN, Ph.D. BENJAMIN E. DIOKNO, Ph.D.
Chairperson Secretary
Commission on Higher Education Department of Budget and Management
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