How varsity funding model confusion has hit new students, parents

Parents whose children have joined university, or are preparing to do so, are in the dark over the financial support they will get from the government as Parliament considers a Bill to overhaul the higher education funding model.

The first-year students started reporting to campus last month, but their applications for financing through the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) and the Universities Fund (UF) have not been processed.

The government on Thursday said it had released Sh22.1 billion for disbursement to continuing students but extended the application deadline for first-years to September 21, 2026.

It has also emerged that when the new model, touted as universal, is approved by Parliament, students and trainees in higher education – including continuing learners – will be financed through it.

When the model it seeks to replace was introduced in 2023, only first-year students were affected. Learners who enrolled before 2023 are financed through the Differentiated Unit Cost Model (DUC), adding to the confusion.

Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, said the transition would cover students from first year to sixth year – those in university, the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutes.

“The Bill to anchor the model is in Parliament. We have done the first reading and the second will be when Parliament resumes from recess,” Mr Ogamba said in Mombasa during a tour of an assessment resource centre for learners with special needs.

“We have started admitting first-year students. First-years are being admitted using the existing funding model.”

He added that of the 202,000 first-year students who qualified for university courses, some 195,000 have applied for funding.

“We are doing it in a way that will help avoid hiccups. The transition needs to be smooth,” the minister said.

“We have a functioning model. It may have challenges, but continuing students are in it. When the Bill is passed and signed into law, we will carry all the students into it.”

The Bill proposes that higher education be financed through a combination of loans and other funding.

Revolving fund

“It ensures everybody has access to education. The funds are adequate and available. The funding does not depend on the Exchequer, meaning the model is sustainable. It is a revolving fund,” Mr Ogamba said.

However, the shift is significant for students enrolled in high-cost courses such as medicine and engineering, where a sizeable gap in funding could leave parents having to find large sums of money to keep their children in school.

Analysts fear that huge loans with accruing interest could become burdensome to the graduands.

“We need to know how much the government will cover and what will be left for families to pay. My child is enrolled in an education course and has already reported to university, where we were told to pay 10 per cent of the fees,” a parent of a first-year student told the Saturday Nation.

“Even that 10 per cent is still a lot. When we heard the Cabinet Secretary say we are going back to the current funding model, it took us by surprise. We had planned around the universal funding model because we felt it would have been a better option for parents.”

Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) Secretary-General, Charles Mukhwaya, said President William Ruto’s proposal created expectations among students that the new funding arrangement would be implemented as they reported to university. The President is on record saying it would be implemented in the September intake.

Dr Mukhwaya said the President’s position is at variance with that of Mr Ogamba.

“What the President says should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, what he promised is not happening on the ground,” Dr Mukhwaya said.

He added that students who have reported to university face the possibility of being sent home if they do not pay the required fees.

“This confusion will lead to learners not getting what they desire as they will be sent home and told to return with the money,” he said.

Dr Mukhwaya also said universities would suffer if students fail to meet their financial obligations.

“The tough economic times have hit many households hard. It is also difficult for universities because they cannot run their programmes and operations without money,” he said.

DUC  model 

University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) Technical University of Kenya Chapter Secretary-General, Fred Sawenja, said the repeated changes to the funding model could leave underlying financial challenges unresolved.

Mr Sawenja said the DUC model was intended to fund universities, based on the actual cost of running different programmes, but the government only funded about 48 per cent of the required amount.

He added that the Student-Centred Funding Model (SCFM) also created problems, including inaccurate classification of learners, delays in loans and scholarships and difficulties for poor families. The model, he said, left universities with about Sh103 billion in unremitted funding.

“The challenge is implementing a policy, because the funding model is basically a policy issue,” Mr Sawenja said.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

• 

  Ruto, Ogamba differ on varsity fees reforms

  The President and his CS appear contradict each other on planned free university education.

• 

  Thousands apply for loans as uncertainty clouds varsity funding overhaul

  Ruto said the new funding framework will take effect in September.

• 

  Why Kenya’s education history teaches us free varsity education is a pipe dream

  The problem with university funding is not the model, but lack of cash and proper strategy for sustainable higher learning.

• What next? Collapse of Ruto funding model fails students, varsities

  Three years after launch, rising debts and student hardship force government to abandon university funding model.