The University Management Council met with the Student Affairs Council on Monday, 1 September 2014 to address student concerns about fee increases. As explained in the earlier e-mail of 18th August 2014, some of the undergraduate increases are related to added value in ICT facilities as well as being able to print via wi-fi in the library. Other reasons for a fee increase have emanated from rising costs as well as the Finance Bill of 2013 that resulted in VAT of 16% being attached to items such as books (electronic and print), computers, other learning resources, utilities, etc. Moreover, the University is finalizing the construction of the new Science Building whose classrooms will be used by the various schools. We will also commence construction of the Student Center upon completion of the current construction. Both of these buildings are being financed through University resources. We are also in the process of hiring new faculty who will be reporting throughout the academic year. SAC also mentioned the concern expressed by IT majors that they must pay for lab charges. While wi-fi is available to all students; the software and hardware needed for IT classes is an additional cost. All programs with labs require additional equipment and usually software. Unlike other universities with differentiated unit costs all undergraduate programs have the same tuition structure. However, to accommodate the added expense, the University only charges when you register for a lab based course. This is true of IST courses, journalism courses as well as for the new relevant science courses. USIU-Africa is a nonprofit institution, consequently, all excess revenues go back into the development of the University. In reality the tuition of previous students has paid for the current facilities that you enjoy. So your tuition is giving forward. Nevertheless, SAC has pointed out that the largest increase was for the MBA and the MAIR. Consequently, we shall spread the increment out over two years for those two programs. In order to help offset the loss of revenue in our budget, SAC has agreed to work with the University to reduce costs in such areas as electricity and other utilities. We will be launching a program and ask that you get involved in turning off lights, turning off water, report leaking taps, and please offer your suggestions on cost reductions as we roll out the program. The University is working on this by having solar panels installed in all new buildings, we have also created a pond for recycling water to reduce costs. So help us maintain costs where possible. We have also asked SAC to assist in recommending how to expand the University policy on access to certain non-academic sites such as YouTube and Facebook during regular hours. This will require monitoring and perhaps rollbacks if the system gets too slow. So again, we encourage you to get your ideas to SAC so that we look at possible implementation. I trust that this clarifies matters and will assist all students to continue their education at USIU-Africa. We want to provide you with a quality education that includes good faculty, learning resources and learning environment. We look forward to seeing you this Fall and promise to improve our communication to you in the future. If you have any further questions about the new fee structure, please consult the finance office. the new schedule is attached. Sincerely, Prof. Freida A. Brown Vice Chancellor United States International University-Africa P.O. Box 14634 00800 Nairobi, Kenya
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 16:58:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015