University Of Nairobi

University Of Nairobi

University Of Nairobi,

The University of Nairobi (UoN) is a collegiate research university based in Nairobi. It is one of the largest universities in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dates back to 1956, it did not become an independent university until 1970. In this year, the University of East Africa was split into three independent universities: Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and the University of Nairobi.

During the 2011 academic year, the university had 61,912 students, of whom 49,488 were undergraduates and 12,424 postgraduates. The university launched several policy frameworks and introduced self-funded enrolment (also called ‘module 2’) to cope with the rising demand for higher education in Kenya.

The inception of the University of Nairobi dates from 1956, with the establishment of the Royal Technical College, which admitted its first group of A-level graduates for technical courses in April the same year. The Royal Technical College was transformed into the second university college in East Africa on 25 June 1961 by the Scottish mathematician Prof James Morton Hyslop formerly of the University of Witwatersrand under the name Royal College of Nairobi and was admitted into a special relation with the University of London whereupon it began preparing students in the faculties of Arts, Science and Engineering for award degrees of the University of London. Meanwhile, students in other faculties such as the Faculty of Special Professional Studies (later renamed Faculty of Commerce) and Faculty of Architecture continued to offer diplomas for qualifications of professional bodies/institutions.

On 20 May 1964, the Royal College Nairobi was renamed University College Nairobi as a constituent college of inter-territorial, Federal University of East Africa, and henceforth the enrolled students were to study for college degrees of the University of East Africa and not London as was the case before. In 1970, it transformed into the first national university in Kenya and was renamed the University of Nairobi. The university tops in Kenya’s university ranking and is ranked 7th in Africa and 1698 in the world according to Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.