Students protest fee hike proposal

Shouting the slogan Cancel the plan or step down, over 100 students, joined by labor activists, gathered outside the Ministry of Education in protest against a ministry proposal to adjust tuition fees on a regular basis, which the students believed would result in increased tuition fees.In April, the ministry proposed a 1.76 percent rise in tuition fees, with Education Minister Chiang Wei-ling citing difficult economic circumstances in Taiwan as the reason for the plan.The government is always citing financial difficulties with regard to its policies, said Chen Wei-ting, the leader of the protest.The government should levy taxes on capital gains to fund colleges, said Chen, a student from Hsinchus National Tsing Hua University.Based on calculations by student groups, the government can raise nearly NT$100 billion (US$3.4 billion) annually for education if it levies a 2 percent tax on the NT$4.8 trillion in profits made by capitalists every year, Chen said.The money will be enough to bring tuition fees at private schools in line with public ones, Chen said.On Tuesday, Chiang promised that college tuition fees will stay unchanged this academic year, which will last until the end of July of 2013, when pressed by lawmakers at the Legislature on the issue of whether tuition fees will rise next year.He said his ministry would seek opinions on the matter through public hearings.Premier Sean Chen also sought to calm the public about the tuition plan at the Legislature, calling it an adjustment and not necessarily a raise.He added, however, that it is abnormal for tuition fees to remain frozen over the long term.