By Ednah Kiarie
The United States International
University-Africa (USIU-Africa) signed a
nomination agreement with Qwetu Student
Residences for the provision of purpose-
built student accommodation (PBSA) for
USIU-Africa students.
This is a first of its kind agreement
which will provide up to 1,200 PBSA beds
across 2 properties for the university.
Qwetu provides a clean, safe, secure
and conducive environment for students
to excel in their studies, which will
complement the university’s first-class,
quality academic and research
facilities.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, which
also marked the official opening of 697-
bed Qwetu Aberdare Heights located along
USIU-Road, off Thika Road, the USIU-
Africa Vice Chancellor, Prof. Paul
Tiyambe Zeleza, noted: “USIUAfrica is
proud to be associated with Qwetu
Student Residences. They provide high-
quality student accommodation, which
complements our focus on providing
students with a high-quality teaching
and learning experience.
This is also in line with our efforts to
build mutually beneficial partnerships
with various service providers, which
allows us to concentrate on our core
mandate. Together, we are a right fit.”
The existing capacity for student
accommodation in Kenya is limited with
the majority of higher institutions only
catering to approximately 20% of their
student population.
In addition, Kenya is undergoing rapid
urbanization with 40 million new people
expected to move into urban centres in
the next 30 years. This rapid
urbanization combined with a large youth
population is driving a massive and
acute need for student accommodation
that is clean, safe, conducive,
amenable, and yet affordable.
The CEO of Acorn Holdings Limited, Mr.
Edward Kirathe, noted that;
“Universities in Kenya have been
struggling with inadequate accommodation
which has not kept up with the rate of
student enrolment over the past 30
years. The core business of universities
is to provide excellent academic and
research facilities and in many parts of
the world, university accommodation is
now provided by the private sector.
It is clear that this kind of
partnership and nomination agreement is
the future for the provision of student
accommodation for both public and
private universities across Africa. We
are seeing that despite the COVID-19
pandemic, the demand for quality
education and accommodation is growing
in Africa, driven by the significant
wave of young people finishing high
school which continues to grow year on
year.
It is therefore our intention to
continue engaging universities to adopt
this type of partnership in order to
quickly meet the ever-increasing need
for student accommodation.” Under this
nomination agreement, USIU-Africa will
refer their students to reside at Qwetu,
while Qwetu will provide support for
several of the university’s programs and
initiatives.
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