Tough times ahead as university fees to triple in January

University Fees in Kenya: Parents will have to dig deeper into their pockets to fund their children’s university education. This is because the National Treasury, Members of Parliament and vice chancellors have endorsed a fees restructuring plan that will triple the fees from Sh. 16,000 to Sh. 48,000 per year.

In addition to this, Standard newspaper said on Thursday, the Ministry of Education has been advised to embark on holistic university reforms that include staff cuts, salary reviews, mergers and closure of nonviable campuses to guarantee financial sustainability in the institutions.

“The development is a major setback on parents’ hopes for subsidized higher education, given that the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) funding had been reduced from Sh. 45,000 to Sh. 37,000. Helb Chief Executive Officer Charles Ringera said the decision to reduce the loan funding was a result of the Covid-19 crisis that had slowed down loan recoveries as most Kenyans lost jobs,” the report said.

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It added that presently, all government-sponsored students are funded at a flat rate of Sh. 120,000 per year based on a formula that was developed in 1989. Of this, Sh. 86,000 is tuition fees while Sh. 34,000 caters for students’ personal expenses, including accommodation, food and books. The government pays Sh. 70,000 of the tuition money with students left to pay Sh. 16,000.

“As vice-chancellors, we are pitching that fees should be increased to Sh. 48,000, and this will go a long way in resolving many financial problems that universities presently face. With the current average unit cost per student at Sh. 254,644, by simply taking the current fees of Sh. 16,000 against the nominal figure of Sh. 86,000 on a proportional basis with respect to the current average unit cost, we have agreed that the student should pay an average figure of Sh. 47,376, which nominally could be adopted to be Sh. 48,000,” Prof Geoffrey Muluvi, VCs Committee chairperson said.