The above title is self explanatory and more information can be found here.

TUITION fees for the new intake of National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students will go up by 4 per cent in the new academic year to meet rising manpower and operating costs.

The increase is much higher for permanent residents and foreign students to reflect greater fee differentiation between local undergraduates and others at both universities.

The last time the universities raised their fees was in 2006 when tuition fees went up by three per cent.

Both NUS and NTU said the cohort-based, and fixed fee increase, which is locked in at the the start of the new academic year and maintained during the entire duration of the students course of study, will help them to better plan their finances.

With the fee increase, new NUS students will have will have to pay annual tuition fee of $6,360 - from $6,110 last year.

Foreign students on tuition grant bond will pay 50 per cent more, or $9,540, while Singapore PR will pay 10 per cent more, or $7,000. Foreign students and PRs not on a tuition grant bond will pay $23,320 a year.

At NUS, tuition fees for business and law students will go up by more. Business students will pay seven per cent more, or $6,540, and law students, 20 per cent more, or $7,340. Currently, only students in medicine and music pay more.

NTU said the increase was due to higher ‘manpower and operating costs’.

It said it is adopting a cohort-based approach to setting undergraduate tuition fees so that ‘the new fees will be maintained at the same level during the course of the students’ study’.

This is aimed at facilitating ‘better financial planning for students by setting out a predictable fee schedule for the duration of their education at NTU, it explained.

Fees for the current students remain unchanged. Similarly, returning National Servicemen will continue to pay tuition fees based on the year they were offered a place at the university.

NTU gave the assurance that no admitted student ‘will be deprived of a quality university education because of financial constraints’.

Interestingly, from forums and blogs, you will find a lot of people complaining that their bonuses this year is almost non-existent and that there is not much raise in their salary. So if everything goes up and salary does not, what will happen? Go figure.