University of Nairobi (UoN)

Established in 1956 as the Royal Technical College of East Africa and chartered in 1970 as Kenya's first national university, the University of Nairobi (UoN) is Kenya's oldest, largest, and highest-ranked public university. Located along University Way in Nairobi, UoN serves over 84,000 students across nine campuses across the country.

The university is organised into six colleges — Architecture and Engineering, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, Biological and Physical Sciences, Education and External Studies, Health Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences — offering disciplines from Medicine and Law to Engineering, Computing, and African Studies. Campuses span Chiromo, Lower Kabete, Kikuyu, Kenyatta National Hospital, Parklands, Mombasa, and Kisumu.

Accredited by CUE, the Engineering Board of Kenya (EBK), and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), UoN ranks number one nationally. Notable alumni include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga — making it the premier institution for Kenya's political, scientific, and business leaders.

Uon leads kenya in research volume, producing over 2,000 peer reviewed publications annually. the institute of tropical and infectious diseases (unitid) and the institute of climate change and adaptation (icca) drive breakthroughs in infectious disease surveillance and climate resilience, while the wangari maathai institute for peace and environmental studies advances sustainability research. collaborations with the technical university of denmark (dtu), the university of leeds (uk), and the african population and health research centre (aphrc) amplify its impact on national health policy and food security. the centre for biotechnology and bioinformatics (cebib) and the population studies and research institute further anchor uon's interdisciplinary output, ensuring research translates into community level solutions across kenya and the wider east african region.

A C+ mean grade is the minimum for a Bachelor's degree; competitive programmes (medicine, engineering, law, nursing, architecture) require higher grades and specific KCSE subject clusters. Master's programmes require a relevant Bachelor's degree; PhD programmes a relevant Master's degree.