Daystar Timeline: Covid, One Year Later

March 2020
Daystar fully closed on-campus learning and moved all learning online. 800 Daystar students had to drop out which led to many stories of personal uncertainty. Lost tuition created a large budget deficit for the university. Over two million Kenyans lost their jobs including many Daystar parents. Because of this and other losses of revenue, the Daystar management team went through many rounds of cost cutting, including a 30% salary reduction for the leadership team and a 20% reduction for the rest of the staff and faculty members.

October 2020
The Kenyan Department of Education made an announcement that campuses would be able to be partially in-person, beginning on October 19th. The campus had been closed since March with 13 international students allowed to live on campus, as they were not able to return to their home countries. Daystar made preparations to fulfill all of the Covid-19 protocols to open both campuses.

November 2020
Daystar University had their first ever virtual graduation with 936 graduates, including 46 nursing grads!

January 2021
Life had begun to normalize with schools opening and restrictions lifted.

April 2021
In a surprise announcement the president of Kenya ordered the “cessation of movement” in the five counties in and around Nairobi, after an increase in cases of Covid. As part of this order, he ordered an immediate suspension of all on-going physical learning in all education institutions including universities.

May 2021
Many Daystar students returned to campus for the beginning of the May semester, including students from last year and 612 new students! June 2021 University enrollment has surpassed 6,000 students – up from a low of about 3,700 students at the beginning of the pandemic.