House committee wants commission to revoke new university fee rates

MPs want the new university charges proposed by the Commission for University Education (CUE) revoked and fresh consultation initiated to review the rates.

The legislators also want the Commission chairman Henry Thairu, sacked for holding an office with one of the local universities while he is expected to be a regulator of the same institution.

“This is sheer conflict of interests and we call upon Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi to explain whether there is no conflict of interest,” said House Education committee deputy chairperson Julius Melly.

Thairu is the director, Consultancy Services Unit in one of the major public universities.

However, the chairman said he is holding the position according to provisions of the law. “The law says if an issue arises that touches on the institution, you must declare so. I am an academic and I cannot stop being one,” he said.

Addressing the Press yesterday, Mr Melly who is also the Tinderet MP, said the Education committee has received several complaints from students citing increased fees following the revised rates.

In the gazette notice released last year, CUE wants public and private universities to pay a levy per student enrolled to the various degree and diploma programmes.

Under the new levies, universities are required to pay an annual fee of Sh1,000 to the CUE for every student pursuing undergraduate programme.

This means that parents with student admitted in first year shall pay this amount for the next four years until he or she exits the university.

The new charges also require all public and private universities to pay Sh 1, 500 per masters student admitted, and some Sh 2,000 per PhD student.

Those with postgraduate diploma students will pay Sh 800 per student, annually. Melly said parents are already feeling the pinch.

“Universities have loaded the new rates on to the students thus making higher education expensive. The Government is working each day to make education affordable to all Kenyans but some people are still keen to make it unreachable to most poor Kenyans,” he said.

He asked the CUE chief executive officer David Some to ensure the new rates are not effected until stakeholders are deeply involved.

“Any additional levy to students even by Sh 1,000 is a lot. We want Thairu to revoke his gazette notice and also appear before our committee to engage the MPs,” said Melly.

The new CUE charges are contained in gazette notice number 8477 dated November 10, 2014.

Education PS Belio Kipsang, said the amount will be levied to universities and not students.

“This money is to be paid by universities and not individual students. Kenya Universities Students Organisation president Babu Owino, said students will ‘rebel against such levies.’

Meanwhile, Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has asked for more time to sort out the over 110,000 fresh applications for first years. Helb chief executive officer Charles Ringera, said the applications have been overwhelming and noted that some 70,000 students requests are expected to go through.

“We have asked the students to be patient because we are processing their applications. We should complete the process after one week,” he said.

Ringera spoke as university students threatened to disrupt learning on Monday if The National Treasury fails to release Sh 2.5 billion.

Ringera said it would not be fair to push the Helb to pay cash even before they know how many applications have been successful.