Withdraw proposed Commission for University Education charges

In a circular to public and private universities, Commission for University Education (CUE) has said it would start charging the fee annually to finance quality control measures.

According to the mid-December circular, undergraduates will pay Sh1,000, masters’ students Sh1,500 and PhD Sh2,000 a year from the 2015/16 academic year. Postgraduate diploma students will be required to pay Sh800 every year.

Kenya has 70 universities, 38 of them private and 32 public. The student population is 485,000. ln simple arithmetic they will collects billions of money for what?

Every organisation in Kenya, when given the mandate of autonomy, the first thing on their agenda is usually, money. Forgetting that every university has quality control with its organisation (quality assurance). What they need is a little fundraising because they are funded by the Government not the billions they are asking for.

Since the organisation was formed, what have they achieved which can be tabulated? Let us reduce this love of money and go down to work.

The charges come at a time vice-chancellors of public universities are pushing for fees being pegged on degree programmes.

Are they blackmailing universities? If the VCs have their way, annual fee for some courses like medicine and engineering could be as high as Sh500,000.

Should the fee increase be approved, the number of students sponsored by the Government could reduce and the learners made to pay the balance. Let CUE withdraw the circular, it is in bad taste.