University of Nairobi (UoN) has deregistered 30,000 students from its records in the latest mass clean-up exercise conducted at the institution.
According to UoN Vice Chancellor Prof Stephen Gitahi Kiama, the exercise targeted students who had overstayed at the institution, those who had deferred their studies for long, and those serving suspension.
Speaking to the Business Daily on Friday, March 4, Kiama stated that the cleanup exercise trimmed UoN students' capacity to 50,000. He, however, noted that the institution offered the deregistered students a chance to be readmitted.
“We started that exercise mid last year and we took through Senate the names of those who had overstayed, those who are not active and by the time we were closing the year in December, we had expunged slightly above 30,000,” Kiama stated.
“We have to ensure that we have active students. If you have not been active we ought to remove you from our system so that we focus on those who have registered and are in school," Prof Kiama added.
Defending the move, the Vice Chancellor noted that having the correct number of active students helps the institution to plan appropriately.
“Some students register, do one course then disappear but do not notify us of their whereabouts. We are combing through the system because we need to plan for the active students," he remarked.
In 2020 the UoN Senate allowed the university administration to deregister students in breach of its education timelines.
A memo issued on August 26, 2020, indicated that the Senate approved guidelines for student progression effective September 2020. These guidelines provided for termination of students, progression, and deregistration.
UoN has been grappling with financial issues with reports indicating that it defaulted on some deductions like the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and even payment of its staff.
Its situation was worsened by the government's decision to withhold funds remitted to the institution for students who have overstayed.
The University Funding Board (UFB) withheld over Ksh5 billion forcing UoN to deregister the 30,000 students.
