All new students joining the University of Nairobi (UoN) should brace themselves for tough times as the administration moves to effect the new fee structure starting next month.
UoN Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) Academic Affairs, Prof Julius Ogeng’o said the revised administrative charges will apply for all first year undergraduate and postgraduate students who report from September 20.
“This is to inform all students that the revised fee schedule will be implemented with effect from commencement of the 2021/2022 academic years,” said Prof Ogeng’o, in a circular dated August 24.
He also said that the revised schedule if academic fees will apply only to self sponsored first year undergraduate and postgraduate students reporting on the same dates.
However, he said that the revised administrative and academic fees will not apply to continuing students in second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth years. “For these students, the fees with which they were first registered will subsist.”
UoN vice chancellor, Prof Stephen Kiama said has that the university has received a record high of 6407 students, which was more than the declared capacity.
He said the university Senate met and approved all student admissions placed in the 61 undergraduate programmes at the university.
Appropriate measures
“The Senate observed that the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service placed more students than declared capacity in several of our programmes but agreed to take appropriate measures and ensure that all students are accommodated into their programmes of their choice,” said Prof Kiama in a virtual address to the UoN community on admission and orientation of first years.
The new students are expected to receive joining instructions and lectures to begin on October 4.
The university has also said the admissions of students who had initially been placed by KUCCPS or admitted in the last two years are still valid and have since been urged to register and report on September 20.
Last month, UoN students protested against fee increments, terming it as unacceptable and wrong move.
However, the university defended its move saying it was no longer tenable to run the institution with the current fees.
The administration also stated that it has not been revised fees in the last over 10 years despite the changing needs of the industry in addition to every course having its own costs.
Similarly, the university said it has had to scrap off some courses off because they have attracted fewer admissions over the past few years.
The university more than doubled fees, in what has also been considered a move to ease the raging cash crunch, attributed to reduced student enrollment.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) report indicated that enrolment at UoN dropped from 98,715 in 2016 to 62,963 in 2020, an accumulative drop of about 36.2 per cent.
The university increased fees for Master’s courses like communication and MBA to more than Sh600,000 for a two-year programme from an average Sh275,000.
On the other hand, degree courses like commerce, economics and law under the Module II have been increased by up to 70 percent to about Sh1 million for the four years.
The fee increment is despite the Ministry of Education directive suspending all universities increment plans, shelving it to next year.
