‘#BracketAKaNa’

Last weekend, an interesting hashtag kept popping up my social media timelines: “#BracketAKaNa”. While the concatenated words might not be familiar to many, it is a tag that was trending in the Twitter and Facebook lists due to the implementation of the Socialized Tuition System (STS) by the University of the Philippines. The “bracket A” that the tag is referring to is the tuition fee discount category that the new system has. Bracket A is referred to as the “millionaire bracket” since it offers the student no tuition discounts.

Applicants to the tuition fee system are assessed on the “paying capacity of the household to which a student belongs” which “looks at the income as well as the socio-economic characteristics of the household” according to the UP System website. The website also says that based on “the information submitted by the students, the University may grant tuition discounts and, in certain cases, monthly stipends” as assessed by the STS system.