TL;DR: The Tertiary Education Subsidy is created by Section 7 of Republic Act 10931 and administered by the UniFAST Board. The law fixes no peso amount, but the Board's current circular does: UniFAST Memorandum Circular No. 01, series of 2026 pays PHP 20,000 an academic year in SUCs and CHED-recognised LUCs and PHP 27,000 in private HEIs, plus PHP 10,000 a year for grantees with a disability and a one-time PHP 8,000 licensure-exam reimbursement. There is no peso income cap — applicants are ranked by household per capita income. You apply through your school, not to CHED directly.
What TES pays
TES is one of the most valuable pieces of student aid in the country and one of the most misreported. The statute contains no peso figure, which is why invented ones circulate. The figures below come from Section 4 of the 2026 Revised TES Guidelines, issued as UniFAST Memorandum Circular No. 01, series of 2026, signed on 3 June 2026 and effective from the first semester of AY 2026-2027.
| Grantee | Per semester | Per academic year |
|---|---|---|
| Enrolled in a SUC or CHED-recognised LUC, top priority category | PHP 10,000 | PHP 20,000 |
| Enrolled in a private HEI, top priority category | PHP 13,500 | PHP 27,000 |
| Dependent of a solo parent, or member of an ICC or IP community | PHP 5,000 | PHP 10,000 |
| TES-3A, additional, grantee with a disability | PHP 5,000 | PHP 10,000 |
| TES-3B, licensure exam reimbursement | — | up to PHP 8,000, one time |
Two extras sit outside that table. Students at risk of dropping out may receive a one-time additional PHP 10,000 subject to their school's assessment, under separate guidelines the Board has still to issue. And students at a private HEI in a city or municipality with no SUC or LUC — a PNSL grantee — receive an amount the Board sets separately.
The circular also states that benefits already granted shall not be reduced, and may be increased, for as long as the grantee stays eligible and funds allow.
What Section 7 of the law says the subsidy may support is broader than a tuition discount: tuition and other school fees at private institutions capped at the rates of the nearest public institution, books and supplies, transportation, room and board, disability-related expenses, and the one-time cost of a first professional credential. The circular's peso amounts are how that list is funded in practice, paid to the student rather than deducted from a bill.
Who qualifies
TES targets Filipino undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. There is no grade-point cutoff in the statute. What the law does exclude, under Section 6, is instructive because the same disqualifiers reappear across RA 10931's benefits:
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| Already hold a bachelor's or comparable undergraduate degree | Not eligible |
| Fail to meet the institution's admission and retention policies | Not eligible |
| Exceed one year beyond the programme's prescribed period | Not eligible |
| Hold a technical-vocational certificate at NC III or above (for TVI benefits) | Not eligible for the TVI benefit |
The practical reading: TES is not a merit award, but it is not unconditional either. Staying in good academic standing and finishing roughly on time are the conditions.
How priority actually works
This is where applications are won and lost. RA 10931 Section 7 sets a ranking rather than a cut-off, and Section 3 of MC 01 s.2026 works it into two tiers for new slots:
- Students from households in the most updated Listahanan, the DSWD's national household targeting database, ranked by household per capita income as determined by DSWD. If DSWD certifies that Listahanan has been discontinued, the 4Ps list is used instead, including dependents of solo parents, members of Indigenous Peoples communities and persons with disabilities.
- Dependents of solo parents in active status, and members of Indigenous Cultural Communities or Indigenous Peoples, again ranked by household per capita income, pursuant to the special provision of the 2026 General Appropriations Act. Solo-parent dependents must appear in the official DSWD registry; ICC/IP applicants must be in a household recognised by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Three consequences follow. First, there is no peso income cap. The widely repeated PHP 400,000 ceiling appears nowhere in RA 10931 and nowhere in the 2026 TES guidelines. If your household income is above that figure, you are not disqualified, you are simply ranked. Second, being in Listahanan puts you ahead of the entire second tier, so confirming your household's listing status with your local DSWD office is worth doing before you file anything. Third, within each tier, ranking is by per capita income. A household earning the same total but supporting more dependents ranks higher, so report household size accurately.
Because the list is ranked and slots are finite, a qualified applicant with thin documentation can lose to a qualified applicant with complete documentation. That is the whole game.
TES and free tuition are different things
Students at state institutions routinely conflate the two. They come from different sections of the same law and work differently.
| Free tuition (Section 4) | TES (Section 7) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it covers | Filipino students enrolled at SUCs and LUCs | Qualified students at SUCs, LUCs, private HEIs and TVIs |
| Application | None, automatic for eligible students | Yes, through your school |
| Income-tested | No | Ranked by household per capita income, no peso cap |
| What it pays | Tuition and other school fees at the institution | PHP 20,000 a year at a SUC or LUC, PHP 27,000 at a private HEI |
Free tuition handles the tuition line at a state school. TES handles what free tuition does not: books, transport, room and board, and the costs that actually stop students from finishing. Receiving one does not bar you from the other.
For the wider picture, see our CHED free tuition guide and the list of free-tuition universities. For a head-to-head against the other CHED programmes, read TES vs Tulong Dunong vs free tuition.
How to apply
TES applications are school-based. There is no national online portal where a student applies directly. Your college collects applications, screens them, ranks them and submits them.
- Ask your school's scholarship office or student affairs office when the intake opens. Many schools open TES intake before regular enrolment, and close it early.
- Confirm your Listahanan 2.0 status with your local DSWD office. If your household is listed, say so in the application and document it. It moves you into the first priority group.
- Gather income documentation. For applicants outside Listahanan, that generally means payslips, a BIR Form 2316 or income tax return for employed parents, and a barangay or DSWD certification where applicable. Ask your school which formats it accepts, because this varies.
- Report household composition accurately. Ranking is by per capita income, so the number of dependents matters as much as the income figure.
- Submit before the school's deadline, not the national one. Schools close their own intake, and late submissions generally are not accepted.
- Let the school upload and rank. You cannot do this step yourself.
- Wait for confirmation and disbursement through your school.
TES is not automatically renewed. Reapply each academic year you want it.
If you do not get a slot
Slots are finite and the ranking is real, so plan for the possibility.
- Ask for written confirmation and a waitlist place. Funded slots occasionally free up when approved students withdraw.
- Apply for CHED Tulong Dunong, the other non-repayable CHED assistance route. See our Tulong Dunong guide.
- Consider the statutory loan programme. RA 10931 Section 8 creates a student loan programme covering tertiary education at SUCs, LUCs, private HEIs and registered TVET programmes, with short-term and long-term loans, licensure exam review loans, and graduate study loans available after an undergraduate loan is repaid. Repayment is collected through SSS or GSIS contributions once income passes a Compulsory Repayment Threshold, with the UniFAST Board setting rules for OFWs, the self-employed and others outside those systems. It is a loan, so treat it as the fallback rather than the plan.
- Reconsider the school. If the numbers do not work, compare affordable colleges in the Philippines before committing to another year.
The one thing to take away
Check the figure against a UniFAST circular before you budget against it. The statute sets the rule and the UniFAST Board sets the amount, reviewed against each year's appropriation. The rule is stable. The amount moves, and old amounts keep circulating long after they are superseded — as does the PHP 400,000 income cap, which was never in the law at all.
Looking for a school you can afford? Compare tuition across hundreds of Philippine schools on SchoolFinderPH.
Sources
- CHED-UniFAST - Memorandum Circular No. 01, s. 2026, 2026 Revised TES Guidelines (official PDF) - Sec. 3 prioritisation and Sec. 4 subsidy amounts
- Republic Act No. 10931, Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act - full text - Sec. 7 creates TES and sets the ranking, with no income cap
- CHED-UniFAST - Tertiary Education Subsidy programme page
- Department of Social Welfare and Development - Listahanan
