CS Machogu, Education, directs HELB to launch a financing site so that students can apply.
Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and Universities Fund (UF) have been directed by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to launch the funding site on June 15, 2024, so that qualified students can submit their applications.
This comes after the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms had statewide discussions and President William Ruto introduced a new funding model in May for Kenyan university and TVET students.
First-year student university placement was unrelated to funding under the student-centered funding approach.
Based on this information, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) released on its portal the cluster requirements for degree programs as well as the whole cost structure for every course announced in universities.
Machogu stated, “I direct the Universities Fund (UF) and the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) to open the Higher Education Funding portal on June 15, 2024 to allow the eligible students to apply for funding.”
“I would like to inform all guardians, parents, and students that the grant application results will be made public starting on July 31, 2024. According to their joining instructions and admission letters, all first-year students will report to their respective universities as instructed.”
“Universities shall notify all of their respective first-year students of the amount to be paid by parents/guardians (household) upon the results of the funding applications being released,” he continued.
Universities and funding organizations ought to start educating stakeholders, parents, and students about the Student-Centred Funding Model right away.”
When the model was introduced for first-year students who enrolled in TVETs and universities in September 2023, student participation was quite high.
As of May 2024, 112,741 university students and 151,933 TVET students had applied to the Universities Fund and HELB, respectively, for loans and scholarships, according to Machogu.
“A total of Ksh24.76 billion was disbursed to scholarships and loans for universities students, while Ksh11.3 billion went to TVET trainees,” he stated.
“For the first time since the government adopted the cost sharing policy in higher education, 100 percent of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination applicants received financial support to pursue their programme of choice in our universities and TVET institutions.”
Machogu also clarified the funding process, noting that each degree program will be funded through three components: loans, scholarships, and parents/guardians (household) contribution.
The allocation for each component will be based on the assessed level of need of each applicant. This is in line with the second cohort of students enrolling in universities that are expected to receive financial support under the student-centered funding model.
Some institutions have provided admission letters and fee schedules for the courses that were shown in the KUCCPS portal during the application process, based on the placement scores. Since then, the government has observed that some parents and guardians (households) have believed they will be obligated to pay the entire amount stated in the acceptance letters sent by the different universities,” he said.
“Moreover, the government makes it clear that each student’s household contribution will only be known once the student has asked for financing and the assessment based on need has been finished. This will then establish how much loan and scholarship money they need.”
CS Machogu, Education, directs HELB to launch a financing site so that students can apply.
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