The University of Nairobi (UoN) has increased its fees by up to 100% as it seeks to plug the gaping holes in its budget.
Self-sponsored students popularly known as ‘parallel’ enrolling at UON from July 2021 will pay as mush as Ksh 1 million for a 4-year degree programme.
Degree courses in commerce, economics and law have been hit with a 70% increase in fees with will see the students fork out at least Ksh 125,000 per semester.
Postgraduate students will also need to dig deeper into their pockets with the cost for an MBA doubling to Ksh 600,000 for the four semesters. This is not inclusive of project fees.
The increase represents a significant 118% rise in fees from the initial Ksh 280,000.
Prospective doctors who intend to train at the institution’s famed Chiromo Campus will now pay Ksh 760,000 annually up from Ksh 470,000.
Plagued by budgetary shortfalls, Kenyan universities had earlier attempted to triple fees for government-sponsored students from Ksh 16, 000 to Ksh 48,000.
This was not well received by students across the country forcing the university chancellors to drop the plan.
UON has seen a 36.2% drop in its student population between 2016 and 2020 which has put its accounts in the red.
In 2018, the university made a loss of Ksh 1.4 billion with reports indicating it overestimated its revenues.
On Friday, UON announced that it had abolished 24 colleges and five offices of the Deputy Vice-chancellors in what has been interpreted as a cost-cutting measure.
