The Ministry of Education has recently announced the freeze of the college tuition. While it's supposed to be good news for the students, the Association of Private Universities and Colleges says that the calculation of tuition and fees fails to reflect the real costs of the schools. The association has since requested the ministry to adjust the calculation method, which may soon be implemented at the end of this year. The Ministry of Education's persuasion works again as it successfully convinced 72 public and private colleges and universities, as well as 92 private technical and vocational colleges to maintain the tuition rates of last year. The tuition for public universities averagely ranges from NT$20,200 to NT$39,560 each semester while tuition fees vary from NT$41,890 to NT$72,500 for private universities. Even though schools across the nation have agreed to support the MOE's policy this year, some schools expressed their disapproval on the ways to calculate the tuition, stressing that the formula fails to reflect the costs of universities. According to the chairperson of the Association of Private Universities and Colleges, president of Tunghai University, Chen Hai-tung, the formula should be amended if possible, and if it's not feasible, at least the Ministry of Education can change the parameters. One of the parameters is the "percentage of the average income of the citizens", which the president said cannot balance the income and the cost. To avoid the annual dispute over the adjustment of tuition, Ministry of Education says it would amend the formula based on the principle of providing quality college education to students. Since most students from financially disadvantaged families go to private universities, the Ministry would allow slight tuition hikes in private schools while public schools will have greater tuition hikes. The amendment will be announced at the end of this year at the soonest.