This study by Edita Tan deals with the inflation and structure of tuition in the higher education sector of the Philippines. It shows the wide range of variations in the fees and program costs of educational fields in the country's tertiary education sector. The author points out that there is no clear relationship between prices of fees of schools and their passing rates in professional licensure examinations (used as proxy for quality) in various educational fields. Thus, the high fees being charged by many schools do not necessarily translate into high passing rates for their graduates. Still, the author also indicates, there are a number of tertiary institutions, both private and public, that offer relatively good quality education in certain fields at fairly reasonable fees. So what can be done? At the core of the matter seems to be the need for a rational allocation of resources. For the national government, this calls for a rethinking in its allocation of funds in the country's tertiary education sector.
