The University of Nairobi is a collegiate research university based in Nairobi. It is one of the largest universities in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dates back to 1956, it did not become an independent university until 1970. In this year, the University of East Africa was split into three independent universities: Makerere University in Uganda, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and the University of Nairobi.During the 2011 academic year, the university had 61,912 students, of whom 49,488 were undergraduates and 12,424 postgraduates. The university launched several policy frameworks and introduced self-funded enrolment to cope with the rising demand for higher education in Kenya.