Kenya Government De-Registers Over 12,000 Overstayed University Students

The Kenyan government has delisted over 12,000 university students who failed to complete their studies within the required timeframe.

The cleanup exercise saw the government save up to Sh.2.2 billion, according to the University Funding Board (UFB).

UFB, which pays 80 percent of tuition fees for government-sponsored students in public universities, said the affected students will have to fund their education if the higher learning institutions agree to re-admit them.

The agency indicated that many students who drop out continue to seek funding from the government, thereby increasing expenditure and derailing services of the board.

“In this financial year we stopped catering for 12,354 university students on establishing they had overstayed at the institutions and this has saved Sh2.2 billion,” Geoffrey Monari, CEO of UFB said.

It takes about four years to complete a normal undergraduate course in Kenya but some like engineering and medicine take between five and six years.

Some students are forced to defer their studies midway due to pregnancy, poor results, lack of fees, suspension, among other reasons. As a result, they take more than the stipulated time to complete the course and graduate.

UFB stated that it will no longer finance the education expenses of such students.