Looming crisis over university student fee hike plan

Kenya’s university students are facing a defining moment following a stand-off between the government and university administrators over a plan to raise tuition fees from next year.

In a clash between public policy, politics and harsh financial realities, university bosses have threatened to increase fees under a new funding model that requires students to pay tuition charges based on the courses they are undertaking.

Under the proposal, funding for programmes could rise by up to five times for some of the courses offered at universities – a development causing fresh discomfort among students.

Disagreement

University bosses reckon that their pleas over the years to government for a higher allocation have not materialised, with the state citing budgetary constraints. They argue that the only option left is to increase fees.

But it is emerging that the Ministry of Education is opposed to the vice-chancellors’ plan, arguing that it would lock out many students from poor families. The government is proposing to base state funding to universities in proportion to the cost of courses offered:

“Fees will remain unchanged. There is absolutely no reason why a university should offer more specialisation in art-based courses when all we need are technical subjects,” said Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i.

“We are discussing how the funds allocated for higher education will henceforth be distributed equitably to universities based on a proven formula as opposed to current practice that allocates a flat rate per head,” he added.

This came just days after vice-chancellors of public universities presented their funding recommendations to Matiang’i.

Interestingly, government’s rejection of the proposal goes against its own resolve to reform the higher education sector, since the Ministry of Education contracted a taskforce to come up with a new model of funding universities.

Under the new arrangement proposed by the taskforce – the ‘differentiated unit cost’ system – students pursuing sciences will be charged more than those studying arts. Lecturers will draw salaries based on the courses they teach, with those specialising in arts earning less than those teaching courses such as engineering and medicine.

With this resolution, the newly constituted University Fund would have to come up with a new fees structure, ushering in the first review of the tuition fees system for public universities, which has remained unchanged for an extraordinary two decades.

The new system

According to a report seen by University World News, vice-chancellors have agreed to dump the old model under which each academic programme is allocated a flat rate of US$1,200 per year, irrespective of the course.

Under the new regulations, dons have clustered all university programmes into 14 categories and assigned a unit cost for each.

The differentiated unit cost system is expected to harmonise the allocation of government subsidies to public universities, as it will be based on the courses a specific university is offering and the number of students taking the courses.

The report shows that with the new structure, it will cost a dental or medical student at least US$6,000 annually to study – five times the current charges. Arts students will be slapped with a 20% rise in tuition charges as the annual allocation has been set at US$1,440, up from a current US$1,200.

People familiar with the standoff said university administrators had insisted that if the government was against fee increases, it should raise the annual capitation it extends to public universities, to support the new fees regime.

But such a request is unlikely to fly with the Treasury, since the government has already indicated it is squeezed to the limits in meeting funding levels.

In the current financial year, which kicked off at the beginning of July, government raised allocations to universities by 9%, failing to match surging growth in enrolment numbers.

State universities will now receive at least US$674 million, up from US$624 million allocated in the current fiscal year. Comparatively, enrolments have risen by over 20% in the past year.

Mixed reactions

The proposal has triggered mixed reactions among educationists.

“The solution to funding university education should neither be the exchequer nor students through tuition fees,” said Professor Kinandu Muragu, chair of the Universities Fund, the new government agency established by the Universities Act to provide funding to universities.

“It's time to think differently. It is time to come up with innovative ways of funding university education.”