The University of Nairobi. PHOTO/nation.co.ke
Crisis is looming at the University of Nairobi after a decision by the government to reduce the annual funding from Sh6.2 billion in this current financial budget to a lower Sh4.5 effective July 2017.
This is after the introduction of differenced unit costs (DUC) which are set to be implemented from July where funding of public universities will be based on the cost of running academic programmes as opposed to the number of students enrolled.
This implies that universities offering courses like medicine, dentistry, architecture, engineering and law will get more cash for tuition as compared to those largely offering arts and humanities courses.
The new DUC funding formula is determined by the real costs of running a programme and it ensures universities get realistic financial disbursements to fund their respective academic programmes.
The University of Nairobi now warns that the reduction in the government finances will lead to layoff of staff, closure of core university programmes as well as a possible shutdown of full university operations.
“The implementation of DUC will impact on university budget since it was carried out without university involvement as previously agreed.
“Further, the figures applied for differentiated unit cost did not take into account the university’s input,” states a report by the university.
According to the report, the university will have a fall of Sh1.7 billion per academic year, which will translate to approximately Sh142 million each month.
“The implications will be inability by the university to fund critical programmes like staff costs [of] Sh770 million per month.
“[There are] expected staff costs shortfall per month of Sh392 million as a consequence and this will lead to possible staff layoffs,” states the report as cited by Nation.