uonbi.ac.ke

What is the University of Nairobi?

The University of Nairobi is Kenya's flagship public university, headquartered in Nairobi, with a broad portfolio of faculties, research institutes and centres. Its own site presents it as "Committed to Scholarly Excellence" and organises academic life around large faculties—Agriculture, Built Environment, Business & Management Sciences, Education, Law, Engineering, Arts & Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Science & Technology, and Veterinary Medicine—plus research bodies such as the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, and the Institute for Development Studies. University of Nairobi

What that mix means in practice

• Prospective undergraduates can compare conventional degree paths (law, engineering, business, education) against health-sciences programmes spanning medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dental sciences and public health.
• Postgraduate and research-oriented readers should look at the institutes and centres, which cluster around development studies, climate adaptation, diplomacy, infectious disease and population research—useful if your interest is policy or applied research rather than a single department.
• Partners and employers will find the breadth relevant: the university covers agriculture and veterinary medicine through to computing, real estate and journalism, so collaboration can be faculty-specific rather than institution-wide.

A useful next step

Decide what you need first—an undergraduate programme, a research supervisor, or a specific faculty's entry requirements—then navigate directly to that faculty or institute rather than starting from the homepage news feed. The site's faculty-and-department listing is the most reliable map of what is actually taught; news and announcements change frequently and are less useful for comparing options. For verification of accreditation or current programme details, confirm directly with the relevant faculty.

Which undergraduate and postgraduate programmes does the University of Nairobi offer across its faculties?

The University of Nairobi's faculties span agriculture, built environment, business, education, law, engineering, arts and social sciences, health sciences, science and technology, and veterinary medicine. Each faculty is organised into departments and teaching units, and those units indicate the subject areas where programmes are offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Faculty subject areas

• Agriculture: agricultural economics; food science, nutrition and food technology; land resource management and agricultural technology; plant science and crop protection.
• Built environment: art and design; architecture; real estate, construction management and quantity surveying; urban and regional planning.
• Business and management sciences: business administration; finance and accounting; management science and project planning.
• Education: educational management, policy and curriculum studies; educational communication and pedagogical studies; physical education and sport; educational foundations; educational and distance studies.
• Law: a single faculty with its own programme structure.
• Engineering: mechanical and manufacturing; civil and construction; electrical and information; environmental and biosystems; geospatial and space technology.
• Arts and social sciences: the broadest grouping, including economics and development studies, diplomacy and international studies, journalism and mass communication, political science and public administration, psychology, sociology and social work, anthropology and gender studies, history and archaeology, Kiswahili, library and information science, linguistics and languages, literature, and philosophy and religious studies.
• Health sciences: dental sciences, nursing, public and global health, surgery, human anatomy and physiology, clinical medicine and therapeutics, paediatrics and child health, obstetrics and gynaecology, human pathology, psychiatry, diagnostic imaging and radiation medicine, medical microbiology and immunology, pharmacy, and ophthalmology.
• Science and technology: chemistry, computing and informatics, mathematics, physics, biology, earth and climate science, and biochemistry.
• Veterinary medicine: public health, pharmacology and toxicology; veterinary anatomy and physiology; animal production; clinical studies; veterinary pathology, microbiology and parasitology.

Research institutes and centres

Postgraduate work is also linked to specialised institutes, including the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Institute, the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies, the Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, the East African Kidney Institute, the Population Studies and Research Institute, and the Institute for Development Studies. These suit research-oriented master's and doctoral applicants more than taught undergraduate students.

Choosing between them

Use the department, not just the faculty, as your decision criterion. A prospective undergraduate in computing should look at Computing and Informatics within Science and Technology; a graduate interested in climate policy should look at the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation rather than a general science department. Applicants should confirm the exact degree title, entry requirements and level (bachelor's, postgraduate diploma, master's or doctorate) with the relevant faculty, since the department list shows subject coverage rather than the full programme catalogue. The university's own site, University of Nairobi, lists faculties, departments and announcements that point to current programme information.

How do I apply for admission to the University of Nairobi as an international student?

Applying to the University of Nairobi as an international student starts with choosing a programme from the faculty or institute listings on University of Nairobi, then submitting an application through the university's official admissions channel and following its instructions for academic documents, identification and fees. The site organizes offerings by faculty and department — for example Agriculture, Business, Law, Engineering, Health Sciences, Science and Technology, and Veterinary Medicine — plus research institutes, so identifying the exact department is the first practical step.

What to prepare and check

• Programme details: Confirm the exact programme name, department and entry requirements from the relevant faculty page, since requirements differ by field.
• Academic records: Have certified copies of prior certificates and transcripts ready, and check whether certified translations are needed for documents not in English.
• Identification: A valid passport is the standard identity document for international applicants.
• Fees and deadlines: Confirm current application and tuition amounts and the intake deadline directly with admissions; these change and should not be assumed.
• Student pass: Plan for Kenyan immigration requirements for a student pass, which are handled separately from the academic application.

A useful next step

Write to the admissions office (or the specific faculty) before applying to confirm the intake dates, the document format they accept, and whether an online portal or paper form is used. If you are weighing alternatives, Kenyatta University and Strathmore University are other Kenyan institutions with international admissions pages worth comparing on programme fit and cost.

What research institutes and centres at the University of Nairobi can I collaborate with or access?

The University of Nairobi lists several research institutes and centres that external researchers, students and partners can approach for collaboration or access, each tied to a distinct field. From the page evidence, the named institutes are:

• Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies
• Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology
• Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation
• Kenya Aids Vaccine Institute
• Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies
• Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies
• Institute of Tropical & Infectious Diseases
• East African Kidney Institute
• Population Studies and Research Institute
• Institute for Development Studies

Matching an institute to your purpose

The choice depends on your topic rather than prestige. A public-health researcher working on infectious disease would look first at the Institute of Tropical & Infectious Diseases or the Kenya Aids Vaccine Institute, while a climate or conservation project fits the Wangari Maathai Institute or the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation. Policy, governance and international affairs work aligns with the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, and demographic or social survey work with the Population Studies and Research Institute. Development economics and applied policy evaluation point to the Institute for Development Studies.

The wider faculty structure on the same page is a useful secondary route: many collaborations sit inside faculties such as Health Sciences, Engineering, Science & Technology or Arts and Social Sciences, and an institute often works alongside a related department. If your project spans disciplines, check both an institute and a faculty department before making contact.

Practical next step

Identify two or three candidate institutes, note the faculty departments they connect to, and prepare a short outline of your project, the resources you need and what you would contribute. Then use the university's official contact channels to reach the relevant institute directly. As general advice, expect collaboration to involve agreeing on scope, data or facility access, supervision and authorship or intellectual-property terms early.

For official contact details and current institute pages, start with University of Nairobi.

What are the tuition fees and funding options for studying at the University of Nairobi?

Tuition and funding details are not published on the University of Nairobi's homepage, so this answer explains how to find them rather than quoting figures. The page itself is an institutional gateway: it lists faculties, research institutes, news and announcements, but no fee schedule or scholarship terms. Fees vary by programme, level (undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma) and whether a student is Kenyan, regional or international, so any single number would mislead.

Where the real numbers live

• Academic divisions. Each faculty page (Business, Law, Engineering, Health Sciences, Science & Technology, Arts, Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, Built Environment, Education) is the natural starting point for programme-specific costs. Fee structures are normally issued per programme, not per university.
• Finance, Planning & Development. This is the administrative division named on the homepage and the correct route for payment channels, invoicing and fee-balance queries.
• Announcements and news. Fee adjustments, deadlines and funding calls tend to appear here first; check before applying rather than after.
• Institutes and centres. Bodies such as the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation or the Institute for Development Studies sometimes host specialised, funded programmes with their own conditions.

Funding routes worth investigating

• Government sponsorship or loan schemes for Kenyan students, administered outside the university's own pages.
• Faculty or departmental scholarships and fee waivers, often tied to specific programmes.
• Research-linked funding through institutes, which may cover fees for postgraduate researchers.
• Employer sponsorship, common for evening and executive-style business and management programmes.

A practical next step

Identify the exact programme name and faculty first, then contact that faculty's office and the finance division with three questions: the full fee per year, what the fee excludes (examination, field or laboratory costs), and the deadline for any scholarship application. For comparison, other Kenyan institutions publish their fee guides openly, for example Kenyatta University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology; checking two or three side by side makes it easier to judge whether a quoted figure is typical. Treat any fee number you see outside an official university communication as indicative only.

How can I check the University of Nairobi academic calendar, news, and announcements?

Use the University of Nairobi's official site, University of Nairobi, as the starting point for all three: its homepage carries the news and announcements feeds, and the academic calendar is published through the university's official pages rather than third-party listings.

Where each item lives

• News and announcements: The homepage has dedicated "NEWS | All News & Announcements" and "Announcements" sections, plus "Events @ UoN" for upcoming dates. These are the fastest way to see current notices; open the "All News" view to scan beyond the latest few items.
• Academic calendar: Look for the academic-calendar link in the site's main navigation or under the academic-affairs/registrar pages. Calendars are usually published per academic year, so check that you are reading the current one before planning around semester dates, registration windows or exam periods.
• Faculty-level detail: Because the site is organised by faculties and departments (for example Business Administration, Computing and Informatics, Law, or Nursing Sciences), a notice that affects only your programme may appear on your faculty or department page rather than the homepage.

A practical routine

If you are a student planning a semester, check the academic calendar first for official dates, then the announcements section for changes such as adjusted registration deadlines or exam timetables, and finally your faculty page for programme-specific instructions. For prospective students, the news section is useful for open-day and intake information, while current students should treat announcements as the authoritative source when a date appears to conflict with an older calendar.

As a general rule—not a feature of this site—bookmark the calendar page and the announcements page separately, and re-check both at the start of each semester, since calendar revisions are often announced rather than reflected in the original document.