El Siglo newspaper commented on the high cost of producing graduates at the state university, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. The university aspires to be allotted 5% of the total government budget for 1999. The 5% of the budget would be more than the 4% of the budget that all the municipalities of the country receive at present. El Siglo comments that then the cost of university education at the UASD would be the most expensive in the DR, with tax payers paying the bill as most students pay close to nothing. If allotted the 5%, the UASD would receive RD$1,937 million at the level of the 1998 budget. That would represent RD$19,370 for each of the 100,000 students. The INTEC and the PUCMM, two of the better and most expensive private universities, charge RD$250 per credit. If a student takes 20 credits per semester (six subjects), he would pay RD$5,000 per semester or RD$10,000 per year. That sum is almost half of what the UASD is requesting from the central government for year 1999. The newspaper asks if it wouldn’t be better for government finances to pay the tuition of students at private universities, rather than continue to increase the subsidy of the UASD. The UASD this year will receive RD$800 million, or RD$8,000 per each of the 100,000 students it has. Of the total, 80% goes to pay administrative personnel and professors. The newspaper called for a stop to the "bottomless barrel" that the UASD has become today. Recently, the Minister of Education, Ligia Amada Melo de Cardona said she would suggest to the rector of the university the establishment of admission tests. The UASD has an open admissions policy.
