Kaimenyi Asks Varsities To Charge Uniform Fees

Education minister Jacob Kaimenyi has told universities to charge standard fees for students joining the institutions irregardless of whether admission is through regular or the so-called self-sponsored programmes.

Speaking on Wednesday September 9 at the launch of the association of governing councils for universities in Nairobi, Prof Kaimenyi said that there is “segregation” of university students which should not be case.

    “There appears to be no compelling reason why the same course unit should attract different fees structure segregated on the basis of sponsorship module of students designated as regular or self-sponsored,” he said at the Commission of University Education.

    “Based on the tenets of the University Act 2012, councils should deliberate and propose to the University Funding Board, how this long standing, socially discriminatory practice can be resolved,” he added.

Currently, regular students pay as low as KSh 14, 000 per semester while the self-sponsored students pay as much as KSh 90,000 for the same degree programme.

Prof Kaimenyi’s argument stemmed from the rapid expansion of higher education in Kenya and said that some programmes initiated by universities were motivated by the desire to make money from students, and not because there was a need in the market.

He drew analogy of how internationally reputable universities have tackled the temptation of increasing their student population compared to local universities.

In this regard, he cited Cornell university, a fairly old land-grant institution, that has a student population of 19,000 against Nairobi or Kenyatta universities, hardly over 40 years old but whose student population already stands at over 50,000.

    “Councils must encourage senates to guard against this expansion trend and not leave it entirely to external quality regulators,” Prof Kaimenyi who has been a long serving dean at the university of Nairobi said.

    “From a professional point of view, which I hope the association shares, student admission should strictly be based on merit,” he added.

Student enrolment in universities in Kenya has increased from about 67,558 in 2004/2005 to over 433,000 in 2014/2015.

In total, the country has 67 universities now.

    “A close look at the drivers for this accelerated rise in enrolment suggests exploitation of opportunities to increase revenue inflow streams via tuition fees, perhaps at the expense of quality,” Prof Kaimenyi said.

source: Tuko.co.ke