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UP revises schemes in STFAP

Scholarship grant has more benefits and stricter rules

Along with this year’s tuition fee increase is the revision of one of the university’s most prominent student support programs, the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP).

The new scheme applies to new students, transferees and second degree holders. Those bearing student numbers from 2006 and older are still under the old bracketing scheme.

Streamlining: A simplification of sorts was undertaken, with brackets reduced from the original nine to just five, and the importance of factors like cellphone ownership and place of residence modified.

Brackets 1–4 in the old scheme were collapsed into Bracket E while Bracket 6 was split among Brackets D and C. The income range of potential qualifiers was also widened, with the cutoff income for base tuition fee pegged at P1 million up by P787,500 from the previous cutoff of P212,500.

The New Alphabetic Scheme

Those in Bracket A will be paying the full-cost tuition fee of P1,500 per unit whereas those in Bracket B will pay the base tuition fee of P1,000. The amount of the full-cost tuition fee as well as the discount rates were set in the De Dios committee report to the Board of Regents (BOR).

The old 9-bracket numerical scheme was collapsed into a new alphabetic 5-bracket scheme and has the advantage of being easier to administer and more in tune with the changes in lifestyle and income of Filipino families. It has also done away with the difference in rates for those living outside Metro Manila as well as those who live in other urban and rural areas.

The standard stipend was also increased from P1,250 per month to P12,000, to be given monthly during the course of an entire semester. All other stipend classifications like monthly living subsidies have been condensed into this single amount.

The four basic components of the STFAP like the student assistantships have also been done away with to simplify the program.

In addition, applicants can now also apply for STFAP subsidies online at http://stfap.edu.ph, a first for the STFAP program.

Students who did not apply for STFAP benefits were assigned to Bracket A or B, depending on the income they declared when they confirmed their intention to enroll in UP. This is also a first for the program.

Sound base: Revised by a team headed by Prof. Edgardo Atanacio of the College of Engineering with Prof. Emmanuel Esguerra of the School of Economics and Prof. Rene Felix of the College of Science as members, the new bracketing scheme uses a predictive income function based on the Family Income and Expenditures Survey and Labor Force Survey, which are collated and released by the National Statistics Office. The new cutoff levels were decided on using this function.

This function incorporates factors from the two said surveys as well as the information provided by the applicant in classifying the family into one of the five new brackets. It also incorporates regional factors like the location of both the constituent university that the applicant plans to attend and the residence of the applicant.

The function has helped in making assigning brackets more comprehensive and accurate, integrating and collating more factors about the applicant in a better and faster way.

Catching up: According to Atanacio, the old scheme—which had remained largely unchanged since it was established in 1989—while very fine-tuned and fair, was difficult to update. “The problem with the old STFAP system was that it was difficult to change yung mga pagba-bracket dahil some of the criteria [factors that were taken into consideration while applying] were difficult to update or to modify...This one can be revised every three years or so…”

This need to update the program was seen in items like ownership of outdated appliances and cellphones. “[In the old scheme] tinatanong lang whether you have or you don’t have a cellphone, tapos yun would be a large consideration in placing you in the uppermost bracket….Times change.”

Some parents are inclined to agree. “…[K]asi nga naman hindi lahat nasa local bracket, yung iba talagang mayayaman…siguro ok narin yun kasi yung ibabayad nila, mapupunta sa yung mga services…renovation.”

One thing that Atanacio and Dr. Bella Villanueva, Director of the Office of Scholarships and Students Services, seem to agree on is that it’s too early to tell if the changes had a negative or positive effect.

As of June 19, only 1,158 freshmen have applied for STFAP benefits, 333 more than last year before the changes. While this is to be expected, according to Atanacio, it’s not unfavorable.

He noted that the latest figures plotted into a bell-shaped curve, with the number of students in Brackets A and B at the expected levels, and the most number of students in Bracket C, those who receive a 40 percent discount in tuition. “We’re quite satisfied with the results,” he said.

“Ang originally na naisip namin is that a lot more students will apply for STFAP pero hindi ganun ang nangyari. We’re still getting some delayed applications pero ang total siguro mga 3,000 lang.”

In addition, more applicants were also accepted this year. Eighty-six perczent of the freshmen applicants were assigned brackets, whereas last year only 35 percent were given them.

Another point of agreement is that the use of online STFAP registration has helped in speeding up the process. With the online registration, Villanueva says, students are already given bracket assignments even before registration begins, unlike in the old scheme where enrolment and applying for STFAP were done at the same time.

The future: There’s still a lot of room for improvement, though, and Atanacio says that an adjustment of the cutoffs may be in order and the predictive income function can be adjusted.

“[Y]ung ginawa ngayon [na bracketing scheme] may still need a lot of work. So as we go on, it should be getting better, mas mape-predict yung talagang status nung pamilya, tsaka yung need niya, at mas mababawasan yung misbracketings….Nothing there is etched in stone. At any time pwedeng magbago yan basta iaapprove ng BOR.”
He also confirmed that further changes to the application form are in the works. The changes to be made include clearing up of certain items in the application form. “[T]here will be less chances for an applicant to misunderstand.”
Plans are also being made to improve the STFAP web site and fully integrate all the functions of the program, from the initial online application to the assignment of brackets.

Although Villanueva has her reservations, citing issues of thoroughness, completeness and accuracy in a system so fully automated, Atanacio remains optimistic.

“This will have the advantage of eliminating the encoding process, eliminating encoding errors as opposed to when the application is filed in person. Hard copies of supporting documents can be mailed to the university. The process is much faster when done online.”

—Anna Kristine Regidor