The St. Paul University Philippines in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan has clarified that its postgraduate studies do not charge a hefty P1.2 million  to each foreign student, following a congressional hearing on the influx of Chinese students in the country.

The university refuted the claims during a hearing of the House Committee on Justice, stating the actual tuition fee and the number of enrolled Chinese students.

Dr. Jeremy Godofredo Morales, the university’s director for internationalization, clarified that St. Paul charges $1,000, or about ₱58,000 per trimester.

“St. Paul University does not charge ₱1.2 million,” Morales said during the hearing. “So, for the students to complete their graduate school program, they are enrolled in at least 10 trimesters” or a total of P580,000 and not ₱1.2 million.

There are currently 828 Chinese students enrolled at St. Paul, with only 200 attending physically, according to Morales.

“We never reached 4,600 Chinese students enrolled in any year,” he said. 

This clarifies earlier reports suggesting there may have been as many as 4,600 Chinese students enrolled at the university in a single year.

Norman Tansingco, commissioner at Bureau of Immigrations, backed up Morales’ statement, saying, “We have no data showing the 4,600 students.” Instead, “for St. Paul’s University for 2023, only 1,464 applied for conversion, and 52 applied for extension.” 

The House inquiry stemmed from concerns about the rising number of Chinese students in the Philippines, particularly in Cagayan province. Lawmakers expressed apprehension about possible national security implications.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said that for the last seven years, India has consistently had the most foreign students in the Philippines, followed by China and then Nigeria. 

Data from CHED showed a total of 17,202 foreign students enrolled in the country, with China having 5,334 students.

Both CHED and the Bureau of Immigration have agreed to share data to address the discrepancy in the number of foreign students reported.