Public by Day, Private by Night: examining the private lives of Kenya's public universities

This article examines the emergence of the public university in Kenya as a key provider of private higher education, characterised mainly by the phenomenon of the “private public university student.” It probes the broader socio‐economic reforms circumscribing the privatisation of Kenya's public universities and the local and global forces responsible for these reforms. From the enrolment patterns of Kenya's public universities, where state‐subsidised students are becoming a diminishing minority and where a range of exclusive programmes for private students (mainly taught in the evenings) are a growing trend, it may be argued that a new kind of private university is emerging; namely, private universities owned by public universities.