A plan by vice chancellors to triple university fees in January to keep the institutions afloat amid the Covid-19 Pandemic has been backed by the National Treasury.
The National Treasury Principal Secretary Julius Muia in a meeting with lawmakers that reviewing fees is part of policy options to ensure financial sustainability in universities.
The vice chancellors have proposed that tuition fees be increased up from Sh16,000 to Sh48,000 for fresh students to help ease the cash flow challenges that have affected service delivery.
“Our suggestion is that we increase tuition fee to Sh48,000, then raise bursary allocation for those students not able to raise that amount,” Mr Muia told the National Assembly Committee on Education.
The move which is a 3 times spike in fees will mark the first major shake-up of university fees since the end of free university education in 1991 and introduction of the student loans scheme-Higher Education Loans Board (Helb)- in 1995.
The push for the increase in fees comes at a time universities are experiencing a sharp fall in the number of self-sponsored students due to a drop in the number of students scoring the mandatory C+ grade in KCSE.
The push by public universities to have fees paid by students tripled will in January is currently being fronted to President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Cabinet for consideration.
Upon approval, students who will sit their 2020 KCSE exams scheduled for July next year and qualify for university placement under government sponsorship will be the first lot to pay the hiked fees.
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