32,000 Overstayed Students To Be Kicked Out By Universities

By Clinton Ochieng

Deregistration and termination of courses for learners who have overstayed in the institution beyond the required time will start today (Monday).

The details are contained in a March 8 memo by Julius Ogeng’o, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs. To enforce the directive, the UoN Vice-Chancellor Stephen Kiama transferred all student affairs matters to the DVC in charge of Academic Affairs.

“The management has taken note of the fact that the functions of Students Affairs continued to run efficiently under the office of DVC (Academic Affairs), who is also the custodian of the student’s records,” said Prof Kiama in a March 3 memo to staff.

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Kiama went on to say that filling the position of DVC (Students Affairs) had therefore been deferred indefinitely.

Prof Kiama said the University of Nairobi would scrutinize students’ roll and use details to make informed decisions. The VC said the development of the Students’ Progression and Deregistration guidelines were part of the larger reforms the university was instituting to enhance accountability and transparency.

UoN becomes the first university to start the purge after the Universities Fund raised the red flag on the high number of this category of learners. The Universities Fund mandated to develop transparent and fair criteria for allocation of funds to universities, blocked plans to spend 5.5 billion shillings to sponsor some 32,000 learners who had overstayed.

Students with unexplained failure to transit to the subsequent level and those who interrupted their studentship by temporary withdrawal, deferment, or suspension are also targeted, said Prof Ogeng’o. Section 2.7 of the University of Nairobi guidelines provides for termination of students’ progression and deregistration by expulsion or discontinuation.