Funding challenges alongside dwindling student numbers are the reasons cited for the planned closure of Egerton University’s Nairobi City campus this December.
The closure came in the wake of the government’s austerity measures which saw cuts in capitation funds to universities.
“Going forward, it has become a financial challenge to continue running the campus,” the university said in a letter dated December 4, 2018, to Lloyd Masika – the agent for Stanbank Building proprietors, where the university had leased the fifth to 10th floors.
First and second-year students have accused the university of “tricking them into taking up classes”. The learners told the Star in confidence that there was foul play as “the university admitted us aware of the imminent closure.”
First and second year students will have the option of joining Njoro and Nakuru campuses, or their E-campus.
The city campus – which has over 500 students, is also yet to pay lecturers, most of whom have withheld students’ results in protest. The university council will be meeting at the main campus today to decide the students’ future.
Prof Alexander Kahi, the DVC Academic Affairs, told the students on Friday that the closure cannot be reversed.
The campus is among eight that were blacklisted by the Commission of University Education in 2015 for failing to meet accreditation standards. Most of the students were taken in despite the closure order.
Others whose city campuses were ordered closed are St Paul’s University, Africa Nazarene (Argho House), South Eastern Kenya (Devt Hse), Dedan Kimathi (Union Towers), Multimedia (City Square), Masinde Muliro (Kingsway), and JKUAT (Westlands).
A spot check by the Star revealed that Egerton has since ceded the fifth and sixth floor of the Stanbank Building to East African Institute of Certified Studies.
The varsity leased the building’s 5th-10th floor in 2011 before the same was renewed in 2017 for two years.
Furthermore, no official written communication has been issued to the affected students amid concerted efforts to hide the matter from the media. Suspicion arose after the school drew a class timetable to only third and fourth-year students.
Those in second semester of year two were asked to join their counterparts in the third year in a crash programme, at more fees for the extra classes.
Students who wish to continue with their classes until December can only do so at daytime as there is no space for their usual evening classes.