Lecturers face layoffs as UoN scraps more courses

This comes less than a year after the university axed 250 units that had fewer students than expected, while others had no applicants despite the university allocating funds for them.

Vice-Chancellor Stephen Kiama stated that the university may be forced to lay off some lecturers and non-teaching staff as a result of the move.

“The university has decided to take drastic action to cut costs to ensure that the University of Nairobi is not removed from the map of Kenya. We must try as much as possible to live close to our means and improve our revenue,” Prof Kiama said speaking to Business Daily.

He also stated that the university will limit hiring to critical departments and will reduce the number of courses from the current 324 to focus more on engineering, medicine, and information technology.

“We were offering more than 500 courses but we cut these to 300 but we can still push them down. Senate is engaging to see which ones we continue to downsize so that we focus where we have a competitive edge as a university,” Prof Kiama said.

“We cannot just do what everybody else is doing, we must stick to where we know we are the best.”

He did not, however, reveal the courses that would be eliminated as part of a plan to cut operating costs. The UoN’s staff count is estimated at 4,000 following the closure of eight colleges last year.

This resulted in a decrease in the number of students at UoN, from 70,515 in 2019 to 58,488 in the year to June last year, resulting in lower fees revenue.

The move is intended to alleviate the university's cash-flow problems, which has seen it default on statutory deductions such as pensions and tax for its employees, resulting in debts of over Ksh. 34 billion.

Their failure to remit the deductions has prompted the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to issue warnings, citing the possibility of asset seizures.

The decline in student enrolment, mismanagement, and low State funding have all contributed to public universities' financial difficulties.