Pain And Tears As University Of Nairobi Increases Fees By 100%

The University of Nairobi (UON) students have nothing to smile about after the institution doubled school fees for postgraduate courses and parallel degrees to ease a cash crunch brought home by a dip in student enrolment.

According to the latest review, the university has increased fee for liberal arts master’s courses like Communication and MBA to more than 600,000 shillings for a two-year program from an average of 275,000 shillings, reflecting an increase of 118 percent

Other degree courses in the institution like commerce, economics, and law under the parallel plan have not been spared. Students will have to pay 70 percent extra to facilitate their education. The new fees will apply to new students enrolling to join the University starting from August 2021.

UoN administration is hoping to use the review to turn around their fortunes which have been dwindling for the past few 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

In June 2018, the institution suffered a huge setback after it hit a record Kshs 1.4 billion loss. The move to increase fees for postgraduate and self-sponsored students comes just after a similar move was opposed by state-sponsored students.

UoN settled on the easier target of postgraduate and self-sponsored students after undergraduate students under State sponsorship opposed proposals by vice-chancellors to have tuition charges tripled to Sh48,000 annually.

“The fees are up, and they will apply to new students. It’s part of the restructuring plan that will lift the university from losses,” said a top official at the institution who sought anonymity.

The two-year MBA course will now cost Sh602,000 from Sh280,000, excluding project fees while MA in Communication fees has increased to Sh655,000, up from Sh273, 000.

The increased postgraduate fees are nearly half what top private universities like Strathmore are charging. Fees for a Master’s in Commerce at Strathmore is Sh636,720 annually.

To pursue medicine at UoN, a student is now expected to have amassed Kshs 3.8 million for the five-year course

For law students, they have now to pay Kshs 1,020,000 from Kshs 715,500. Engineering will charge an average of Kshs 2.1 million from about the initial figure of Kshs 1 million

The push for a review of the fees comes when the drop in the number of students pursuing parallel degree courses whose tuition charges are based on market rates, has hurt university finances.

This has forced the institutions like the University of Nairobi to freeze hiring and slow down expansion plans as they struggle with huge debts.

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