Medical courses are the most expensive programmes offered by universities in the country, a new document reveals. According to the document tabled in Parliament by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu yesterday, Dentistry Clinical and Medicine Clinical degree courses top the list of the most expensive undergraduate programmes being offered by universities. Each costs up to Sh720,000 per academic year.

Veterinary Medicine Clinical undergraduate degree programmes comes third at Sh564,000 per year followed by Pharmacy Clinical course which charges Sh504,000 per year.

The cheapest undergraduate degree programmes, according to the document, include Basic Humanities and Social Sciences, Economics, Geography (BA), History, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, Literature, Political Science and Linguistics which go for a modest Sh144,000 each.

Other relatively cheap undergraduate degree programmes include Applied Humanities, Public Administration, Psychology, Music, Peace and Security Studies, Disaster Management, Anthropology, Languages, BA with Education, Language and Communication, International Relations and Diplomacy, Social Work and Development Studies with each costing Sh180,000 per year.

Machogu said the current funding structure for public universities is focused on the university to the extent that it is the institution that gets funded and not the student. He said the government had changed the model of funding universities since bulk funding used to work previously because universities were few, but with the increase in the number of institutions, this was no longer viable. He said all students will be supported adequately to meet the cost.

Training to be a doctor will cost upto Sh720,000 while social sciences are the cheapest programme they choose to pursue. Currently, the government uses the 2017 Differentiated Unit Cost funding model where each learner is financed on the basis of the course they pursue.

The cost is less than the amount used to pay lecturers and the facilities. Said Machogu: “Previously, universities were funded in ways that are completely not related to the unit costs, hence some universities were funded at much higher levels while others were funded at considerably lower levels.” Veterinary The document tabled before the Public Investments Committee on governance and education chaired by Bumula MP Wamboka Wanami shows that in both diploma and master’s degree, Medicine and Dentistry courses are the most expensive.

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The most expensive diploma courses include Medicine Clinical and Dentistry Clinical which cost Sh432,000 per year each, Veterinary Medicine Clinical and Pharmacy Clinical (Sh336,000) while among the Masters degree courses, Dentistry Clinical and Medicine Clinical are the most expensive, each costing Sh864,000 per year, Veterinary Medicine (Sh672,000) while Pharmacy Clinical course costs Sh600,000.

Among the Bachelor’s degree programmes, medicine pre-clinical and dentistry pre-clinical cost Sh360,000 per year each, veterinary medicine pre-clinical and Pharmacy pre-clinical (Sh324 000), Architectural studies part one (Sh360 000), Architecture Professional Part 11 (Sh432,000) while engineering surveying costs Sh360,000.

The degree on Built Environment and Design – Construction, Real Estate, Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, Design, Computing course costs Sh360,000 per year while Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Health Sciences, Food Sciences, Natural Resources Management and the Natural Environment – Agriculture, Food Science and Technology, Medical Laboratory Science and Technology, Animal Science, Nursing, Clinical Medicine, Radiography, Agribusiness Management, Sport Science, Food and Nutrition, Medical Psychology, Physical therapy, Public Health, Environmental Health, Community Health and Developments, Wildlife Science and Management, Agribusiness Management – each cost Sh324,000 per year.

A Bachelor’s degree in applied Social Sciences and the Arts (Professional), Hospitality, Media and Communication Studies, Library and Information Studies, Business Information technology, Sports science and Management , Maritime Management, Fashion and Design, Interior Design, Music (B.Mus.), Civil Aviation Management, Maritime Management, Agribusiness Management, Theatre and Film Studies, Fine Arts, Food Service and management cost Sh240,000 each while a degree in Business, Law, Education (Arts), Economics costs Sh216 000.

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.

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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. Previously, universities minted billions of shillings through the parallel degree programme courses.

“The students paying should pay realistic tuition fees. Thus, review the Sh16,000 tuition payable since 1992,” reads a resolution made by the vice-chancellors. The proposal by the VCs has subsequently been sent to the State and University Funding Board (UFB) —which is mandated to cost university courses and fees afresh—for approval. Currently, universities charge Sh 26, 000 annually, out of which Sh 16, 000 goes towards tuition, while the rest is for registration, amenity, medical and activity fees. Of the Sh 16, 000, a student pays Sh 8000 while HELB is supposed to meet the other half. According to the Secretary General of Kenya Universities Students Union (KUSU) Dr Charles Mukhwaya, the government has failed to meet part of its bargain on funding.

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Instead of the government funding each student up to 80 percent as agreed upon under the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC), a model whereby institutions are allocated budgets based on the number of undergraduate students they register for the state-funded regular programme, and the kinds of courses they take, it has only been giving up to 46 percent, leaving a deficit of 34 per cent. Under DUC, liberal arts courses are offered less allocation compared to specialised degrees like engineering and medicine. Before the DUC, each academic programme was allocated a flat rate of Sh120,000 per year per student. “Universities have been forced to shoulder the deficit not met by the government.

The state needs to increase funding to universities to make them financially stable,” says Dr Mukhwaya. Increase revenue Dr Mukhwaya also proposes that the government should stop funding some students in private universities and instead fund them through public universities. “All those students in private universities being funded by the government should be re-admitted to public universities to increase revenue for the institutions,” he says.