Graduands during the 75th graduation ceremony at the University of Nairobi on September 18, 2026. /UoNPrivate universities accounted for a significant share of the graduate output in 2025, with women graduates surpassing their male counterparts in private chartered universities, signalling a major shift in Kenya's university education landscape.
The latest University Statistics Report by the Commission for University Education shows that private chartered universities produced 41,911 graduates in 2025, up from 30,053 in 2024.
This was an increase of 11,858 graduates, or nearly 40 per cent in a single year.
Meanwhile, graduate output from public chartered universities fell from 91,210 in 2024 to 81,184 in 2025, a decline of 10,026 graduates.
The shift reduced the share of graduates produced by public chartered universities from 73.6 per cent in 2024 to 65 per cent in 2025, while private chartered universities increased their share from 24.3 per cent to 33.6 per cent.
"The gender reversal in Private Chartered Universities likely reflects a combination of deliberate institutional outreach to female students, greater difficulty for women in securing competitive public university placements, and strong female enrollment in business, health, and education programmes concentrated in private institutions," the report notes.
It described the change as the “accelerating transfer of production from public to private chartered universities”, noting that public institutions shed more than 10,000 graduates while private universities gained nearly 12,000.
"Policymakers should examine whether public universities are inadvertently excluding female students through capacity constraints and cluster point requirements on highdemand programmes, and consider targeted interventions to rebalance access," the report adds.
Overall, however, the number of university graduates remained relatively stable, rising from 123,928 in 2024 to 124,912 in 2025.
The report said total graduate output had grown from 99,829 in 2023 to 123,928 in 2024 before increasing marginally in 2025, leaving the latest figure 25 per cent above the 2023 baseline.
The most striking gender change occurred in private chartered universities.
In 2024, men accounted for 15,320 of the 30,053 graduates from private chartered universities, compared with 14,731 women.
Men represented 51 per cent of the category's graduates. In 2025, however, female graduates rose to 21,775 while male graduates stood at 20,129.
Women consequently accounted for 52 per cent of the 41,911 graduates, reversing the gender balance within the category in a single year.
The report describes this as a “full gender reversal”, with female students moving from a slim minority in 2024 to a majority in 2025.
The change was, however, not replicated across the entire university system.
Overall, men still accounted for the majority of graduates, although their share fell from 54.3 per cent in 2024 to 51.6 per cent in 2025.
Male graduates declined from 67,289 to 64,421, while female graduates remained almost unchanged, increasing from 56,077 to 56,194.
This means the small increase in overall graduate numbers was driven almost entirely by the growth in private chartered universities, rather than a broad increase across the sector.
The report also points to an important difference in graduate numbers by qualification level.
Bachelor's graduates remained overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for 114,410, or 91.6 per cent, of graduates in 2025.
This was marginally higher than the 114,257 recorded in 2024, when they accounted for 92.2 per cent of graduates.
Master's graduates increased from 7,943 to 8,611, while diploma graduates rose from 672 to 1,026.
PhD graduates, however, fell sharply from 1,022 to 852.
At Master's level, women maintained a narrow majority, increasing from 3,993 graduates in 2024 to 4,362 (50.6 per cent) in 2025, compared with 4,249 men.
The report notes that Master's level was the only qualification category to maintain gender parity across the two years.
The picture was different at doctoral level, although the gender gap narrowed. Male PhD graduates fell from 615 in 2024 to 472 in 2025, while female doctoral graduates declined less sharply, from 407 to 380.
As a result, the male-female gap among PhD graduates narrowed from 20.4 percentage points to 10.8 percentage points.
Despite the improvement in relative female representation, the report warns that the overall decline in doctoral output is concerning because PhD graduates form part of the country's future research and academic workforce.
The change in graduate production is occurring even as public universities continue to dominate student enrolment.
Public chartered universities enrolled 534,942 students in 2025, representing 75.6 per cent of total university enrolment, compared with 153,099 students, or 21.7 per cent, in private chartered universities.
This means private universities accounted for a disproportionately larger share of graduate output relative to their share of current enrolment, although the report does not establish a causal explanation for the difference.
Mt Kenya University topped the enrolment chart, recording 49,294 students, followed a distant second by the University of Nairobi with 45,526.
However, CUE said several limitations of the methodology were observed.
The commission said UEMIS data is submitted by institutions themselves, creating a risk of misreporting, optimistic rounding, or strategic under- or over-reporting, particularly for indicators that carry regulatory or reputational consequences.
"While validation processes mitigate this risk, they may not eliminate it entirely," CUE said.
Overall, CUE recommeded regulation of admissions in oversubscribed programmes such as education and the arts by promoting uptake in STEM, engineering, agriculture and advanced technology fields to prevent graduate oversupply.
