Students from the University of Nairobi (UoN) have threatened to go to the streets over the fee increase at the institution.
UoN increased fees for liberal arts master’s courses by 118 percent, from an average of Sh275, 000 to more than Sh600, 000 for a two-year programme. The new fees will apply to new students joining the university from July.
The students claim they were not consulted by the University.
“The fee increment has already been confirmed and the update made on the university website in each and every college. They have increased the fee by 118 per cent. We were not involved in any discussion pertaining to this, and we won’t allow it,” Mr Kikwai, the secretary-general of the UoN Students Association said.
Harrison Ochieng’, secretary-general of the college of health sciences, termed the decision an injustice that will lock out students unable to pay for training to become doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
“We will not be silent on this. Education is a basic right that every student is entitled to. If the university wants to support the universal health care agenda as proposed by the President, there is no point raising the cost of training doctors. Increasing school fees now will harm our health care in the future,” said Mr Ochieng.
UoN changes
The University of Nairobi (UoN) has announced major changes to its administrative organisational structure.
Five Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) positions have been abolished, leaving only two harmonised positions, which have been renamed to Associate Vice-Chancellor.
All six colleges have also been abolished, and their functions placed under faculties, which were not spared the trimming. The faculties will now be 11, down from 35.
The institution of higher learning says the whittling down of offices would help avoid duplication and functional overreach.
All college principal and deputy principal positions were also removed, and will be replaced by four executive and associate dean posts.
“[The reorganised office holders will] align resources to the faculties where teaching and learning take place,” said the UoN Council chairperson Prof. Julia Ojiambo in a press conference on Friday, July 9.
All 14 research institutes were, however, spared in the radical change.
The institutes include Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative (KAVI), Wangari Mathai institute (WMI) and Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
“They should be reducing the fee because students are studying online but they have gone ahead to charge the health facility, sporting activity and ICT fees, yet we are not using the services. They have also charged for student identification cards that have never been issued and have not been printed since last year.”
UNSA Sec Gen
“[These will] continue generating knowledge for transformation of communities,” said the Council during an address to journalists at the UoN headquarters.
The university said the changes were proposed and adopted after a year-long structural audit.
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