By Amoto Ndiewo
The Government and Vice Chancellors of public universities are mulling over increasing tuition fees threefold in a bid to ensure financial stability for the institutions with a Ksh 56 billion debt baggage and struggling to offer essential services.
Should the proposal be approved, universities stand to review tuition fees upwards from Ksh 16,000 to Ksh 48,000 per semester effective mid-2023.
The proposal gained momentum at a meeting held on September 23, 2022 at Jogoo house. The meeting brought together top education officials and many senior managers in all public universities.
These institutions have come under strain in recent years amidst rapid expansion, low student enrolment, low state funding and mismanagement.
An internal report prepared by the Ministry of Education says that fee increment is amongst the measures that ought to be undertaken to keep the institutions of higher learning afloat.
The Ksh 16,000 fees was set in 1991 when the government halted the free university education scheme and replaced it with the student loans scheme – Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
The push for this review comes at a time when universities are experiencing a sharp fall in enrolment on self-sponsored programmes. This came after the government opted to fully fund students across the mandatory C+ grade board in KCSE.
The proposal by the VCs has subsequently been sent to the State and Universities Funding Board (UFB) which is mandated to review university courses and their fees afresh for approval.
Currently, varsities charge Ksh 26,000 annually; out of which Ksh 16,000 goes towards tuition, while the rest is for registration, amenities, medical and activity fees. Out of the Ksh 16,000, a student pays Ksh 8,000 while HELB is supposed to meet the other half.
Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) Secretary General Dr. Charles Mukwaya said that the government had failed to meet its part of the bargain on funding.
Instead of the government funding the Differential Unit Cost (DUC), he suggests a model whereby institutions are allocated budgets based on the number of undergraduate students they register and the courses they take.
Under the DUC, Arts courses are offered less allocation compared to specialized degrees like Medicine and Engineering. Before DUC, each academic programme was allocated a flat rate of Ksh 120,000 per student.
“Universities have been forced to shoulder the deficit not met by the government. The state needs to increase funding to make universities financially stable,” the don said.
Dr. Mukhwaya also proposes that the government should stop funding students in private varsities and only fund public universities.
‘’All those students in private universities being funded by the government should be admitted to public universities to increase revenue for the cash starved institutions,’’ concluded the KUSU SG.
