The University of Nairobi Students Associationhas given UoN administration 48-hour ultimatum to review tuition fees hiked by 118 per cent.
The directives comes after the institution doubled fees to cushion it from cash crunch brought home by a dip in student enrolment.
University of Nairobi Vice-Chancellor Prof. Stephen Kiama defended the move saying that it will not apply to any student who is currently admitted at the institution.
“There are no fees going to be increased for a student admitted at the University of Nairobi, we will continue to absorb that deficit because it’s on us. There was no fee increment by 118 per cent that is just people’s calculations there’s what we call differentiated unit costs which are agreed on 14 clusters,” he said in a local television.
The review of the tuition fees comes shortly after undergraduate students sponsored by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Services (KUCCPS) opposed proposals by vice-chancellors to have tuition charges tripled to Sh.48,000 annually.
The university has increased fees for liberal arts Master’s courses like communication and MBA to more than Sh600,000 for a two-year programme from an average Sh275,000, reflecting an increase of 118 per cent.
Students pursuing medicine at UoN will part with Sh.3.8 million for the five-year course, up from Sh.2.35 million.
Fees for degree courses like commerce, economics and law, under the parallel plan, have been increased by up to 70 per cent to about Sh1 million for the four years.
The new fees will apply to new students joining the university from this month, marking the first major fees review for postgraduate courses and parallel degrees in nearly two decades.
The university is betting the review will lift revenues from fees, which have dropped in recent years and pushed Kenya’s leading public university to a Sh1.4 billion loss in the year to June 2018.
Last week, the institution abolished all colleges and reorganized all functions around faculties which have reduced to 11 to avoid duplication and functional over reach.
It also abolished various offices as well as merged functions to align the institution priorities with the demands of changing times.
All positions of Principals and Deputy Principals and their roles have been reorganized under new positions of executive and Associate deans to align resources to the faculties where teaching and learning take place.
UoN Council Chairperson Prof Julia Ojiambo said the changes are informed by the unfolding realities of the 21st century as well as the need to maintain appropriate governance and management structures at the institution.
“Existing structures and systems have served the University well the last 50 years. As the University of Nairobi celebrates her golden Jubilee, our individual and collective reflections have brought us to a point of reflection. The Council is of the considered view that there is need to reengineer how we do business to better deliver on our mandate,” She said.
Ojiambo said the reforms will help the University respond to the changing operating environment, eliminate duplication of functions, improve efficiency in service delivery, enhance accountability as well as address the challenge of declining capitation.