Vice Chancellors backed by the government, have revived the petition to increase varsity tuition fees in order to ensure institutions that are struggling to offer services are financially stable.
If this proposal works through the tuition fee will hike from Ksh 16,00 to Ksh 48,000 effective mid-next year.
A memo has been circulating from the Ministry of Education that this will work for intakes as of next year.
The memo follows a meeting of vice-chancellors on September 23, which sought policy options to ensure the financial sustainability of the universities as some rely on short-term loans to finance their operations.
For the continuing students, they will be lucky to be left untouched by this proposal if it goes through.
The Ksh 16,000 tuition was set in 1991, when the free university education came to a halt and instead had to replace with student loans (HELB) in 1995, to enable affordability.
The push for a review of the fees comes at a time universities are experiencing a sharp fall in enrolment in self-sponsored programmes after the government opted to fully fund students scoring the mandatory C+ grade in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
Universities used to make huge margin profits due to parallel programmes that involved a high number of students.
Students enrolling for the parallel degree programme courses had over the years generated billions for the institutions. “The students paying should pay realistic tuition fees. Thus, review the Ksh 16,000 tuition payable since 1992,” reads a resolution made by the vice-chancellors.
“The students paying should pay realistic tuition fees. Thus, review the Ksh 16,000 tuition payable since 1992,” reads a resolution made by the vice-chancellors.
Read Also:accord-symposium-ii-online-learning-is-not-the-next-big-thing-it-is-the-now-big-thing
However for they not to cause a commotion among continuing students, they want this proposal to apply to new intakes as of mid-next year.
In 2010, a study backed by the World Bank and the government recommended that public universities double their fees and increase the interest paid on Helb loans. But student unions opposed the review.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Switch TV.
Public universities have come under financial strain in recent years as a result of rapid expansion amid the dip in student enrolment, lower State funding and mismanagement.
They are expected to undergo reforms to cut their costs and make them financially viable.
