32,000 students to be kicked out of local universities

Local universities are set to kick out 32,000 overstayed students. The University of Nairobi will be the first university to carry out this exercise.

According to a memo from the university, deregistration and termination of courses for learners who have overstayed in the institution beyond the required time was set to start on this week. “This is to inform all students and staff that pursuant to Section 2.7.2 of the guidelines, the university shall commence the process of deregistration of various categories of students on March 22,” the memo by Julius Ogeng’o, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs reads.

The university said that the development of the Students’ Progression and Deregistration guidelines was part of the reforms the university was instituting to enhance accountability and transparency. “I know we are the first to develop the guidelines and the process shall be fair to all because each student will be dealt with on their own merit,” said UoN vice chancellor Stephen Kiama.

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The purge comes after the Universities Fund raised the red flag on the high number of this category of learners. The Universities Fund blocked plans to spend Sh. 5.5 billion to sponsor thousands of overstayed students.

The Fund’s chief executive officer Geoffrey Monari said that some of the students had repeated courses for semesters while others requested to defer for various reasons, but could not justify their cases to warrant funding.

Other learners who will be expelled from local universities are those with disciplinary cases and those who over the years have beaten systems to overstay.

“This targets those who have overstayed, that is, whose studentship has expired, those whose studentship has been terminated by expulsion or discontinuation in accordance with the respective rules and regulations,” said Prof Ogeng’o on the acse of UoN.

Students with unexplained failure to transit to the subsequent level and those who interrupted their studentship by temporary withdrawal, deferment, or suspension will also be kicked out, said Prof Ogeng’o.