The government and vice-chancellors of public universities are mulling increasing fees threefold in a bid to ensure financial stability for the institutions that are struggling to offer services.
Should the proposal succeed, universities intend to hike fee from the current rate of Sh 16, 000 per semester to Sh 48, 000 effective mid next year.
The proposal gained momentum at a meeting held on September 23 at Jogoo house that brought together top Ministry of Education officials and senior managers in all public universities.
Public universities have come under financial strain in recent years as a result of rapid expansion amid the dip in student enrolment, lower State funding and mismanagement.
An internal report prepared by the Ministry of Education says fee increment is among the measures that should urgently be undertaken to keep the institutions of higher learning afloat.
The Sh 16, 000 fee was set in 1991 when the government halted the free university education scheme and instead replaced it with the student loans scheme, the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
The push for review of the fees comes at a time universities are experiencing a sharp fall in enrolment on self-sponsored programmes after the government opted to fully fund students scoring the mandatory C+ grade in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
