By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

Kenya: The cost of pursuing various courses in public universities is set to be reviewed and the maximum fee per programme pegged once the Universities Fund is established later this year.

These details emerged yesterday in a meeting between Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi and vice-chancellors of private universities.

In addition, lecturers will have their pay reviewed depending on courses they teach starting October. This means that lecturers in the faculty of medicine, for instance, are likely to draw higher salaries than their counterparts in the faculty of arts and social sciences.

It also means that fees charged on science subjects are likely to be higher compared to arts disciplines once the board for the fund is put in place. Currently, all lecturers in the same category take home similar salaries regardless of programmes they teach.

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Once implemented, there shall be clear disparities in pay for lecturers in public universities. Section 53 of the Universities Act establishes the fund that shall provide monies for financing universities.

The minister said the board will be in place in three months’ time.  But the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) immediately said they would only appreciate the new concept once they have seen the pay proposal from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

The law establishes, under Section 54, that the board shall, “in consultation with the public universities, establish the maximum differentiated unit cost for the programmes offered.” This means that private universities have been exempted from this clause and the current trend on how they charge fees is likely to continue.

And as for public universities, it means that the State shall fund them depending on their capacities and abilities to generate income.

“Medicine or engineering courses will get more funding from the State compared to arts courses,” said Uasu secretary general Muga K’Olale.

K’Olale also cautioned that though the proposal may be good, it may ‘kill’ some faculties.