March 14, 2017
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2017 March 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]
JCP efforts help reduce metropolitan univ. tuition for needy students |
The public university has a program to exempt needy students from paying half or the full amount of tuition fees based on the income of their families. However, until 2015, the university used their limited budget as an excuse and provided only a half-tuition exemption to students who met the income requirements for a full exemption. The number of such students exceeded 100 in some years in the past years.
The JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblymembers’ Group has long demanded that the metropolitan government step up assistance for students from low-income families.
JCP lawmaker Yonekura Haruna in September 2014 at a metropolitan assembly meeting said that all eligible students should be awarded a full exemption and demanded the implementation of a budgetary measure to this effect. In August 2015, the JCP group urged the metropolitan government to allocate enough funds for the university’s tuition reduction program. Two months later, JCP lawmaker Shimizu Hideko made the same request in an assembly committee meeting.
The Tokyo government in 2016 increased the budget for Tokyo Metropolitan University to offer a full exemption to all students who fall below a minimum income level. In the 2017 draft budget, the government proposed 358 million yen, up 4 million yen from the previous year, for the tuition exemption program.
JCP Yonekura said to Akahata that she is glad to see the JCP efforts bearing fruit. She expressed her determination to work hard to spread this from the capital city of Tokyo to lower university tuition fees across the nation.
Past related articles:
> JCP: Tokyo governor partially reflects citizens’ demands in her budget draft [January 26, 2017]
> Young people in Japan are struggling with repayment of so-called ‘scholarship’ loans [February 23, 2016]
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