Thousands students stare at missing varsity places over funds.
Thousands of students who took the Kenya Certificate Secondary Education (KCSE) exam in 2017 might not be able to enroll in college since the government has significantly reduced financing for loans for maintenance and tuition.
According to documents presented to MPs, the Higher Education Loan Board (HELB) was only given a meager Sh2.4 billion to support 21,512 students; this means that 101,122 students, or 82.5 percent of the total, will not receive funding.
HELB expressed regret in their submissions to MPs that, despite being allotted Sh31.89 billion for tuition and maintenance loans in the Financial Year 2023/2024, this amount has been lowered to Sh 28.1 billion in the proposed estimates FY 2024/25, which can only be used to fund continuing students through loans for tuition and maintenance (Year 2 to Year 6).
According to the document, HELB will need Sh13.8 billion for 122,634 university students in order to finance Year 1 (KCSE 2023 Cohort) students through tuition and maintenance loans. The FY 2024–2025 forecasts call for a projected allocation of Sh 2.4 billion, leaving a financial gap of Sh11.4 billion. The FY 2024–2025 forecasts call for a Sh2.4 billion allocation, leaving a $11.4 billion funding shortfall.
shortfall in financing
Intended Consequences of Financial Year 2024/2025 Budget Proposals for HELB Loans under the New Funding Model are also included. HELB has a funding gap of Sh11.4 billion in the FY 2024/25 estimated projections. With the money at hand, HELB is able to support every continuing student, but only 17.2% of new students who will enroll in classes in 2024.
The National Treasury also lowered the budget for continuing students in the 2024–2025 financial year, from Sh34.1 billion allotted in the 2023–2024 financial year to Sh 17.85 billion, or 30 percent, as a result of the changes.
Notwithstanding the cut, the National Treasury has set aside Sh22 billion for university student scholarships under the new funding model, which is currently in its second year of operation.
The money will be used to support freshly admitted students who are anticipated to enroll at various colleges later in September, as well as students who will be continuing on to their second year of study.
A new funding mechanism for TVETs and universities was launched by President William Ruto last year with the primary goal of helping students from extremely low-income families. Under the existing DUC model, students were responsible for covering the remaining 20 percent of the differentiated unit cost (DUC), with the government covering 80 percent of it.
Principal Secretary at the State Department for Higher Education and Research Dr Beatrice Inyangala in her submissions before MPs regretted that four universities including Moi, Eldoret, Kabianga, and Nairobi have no allocation which implies that the continuing students in these universities (Year 3 to 6) will not be funded.
She expressed sorrow that this goes against the idea of treating students and universities equally and puts them at danger of leaving their individual universities.
Inconsistent
Inyangala expressed further regret that the funding allotment to the different universities did not align with the standards set by the Universities Fund.
These standards stipulate that funding should be determined by the number of students enrolled in each program, the program’s cost, doctors’ allowances, and strategic support for newer universities with fewer than 4,000 students.
She clarified that the existing financing is insufficient to mobilize resources like equipment, staffing levels, and teaching and learning materials in order to deliver programs that are up to the highest standards of quality.
Universities have been paid according to the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) of their programs since 2016. A budget of Sh 34.1 billion was allocated to 369,029 continuing students in the Financial Year 2023/2024.
This amounted to 42.6 percent of the entire cost of specific programs, as determined by the DUC of each program.
“To fulfill its mandate, the higher education subsector mainly depends on human resources,” the speaker stated. It is implied that universities won’t be able to pay their payroll expenses if there is a large cut in the budgetary allotment. There is a significant chance that faculty and staff may go on strike, endangering university stability.
Julius Melly, the MP for Tinderet and chair of the education committee, expressed regret to the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) during his appearance to advocate for increased funding for the education sector.
He noted that exchequer grants to continuing students at public universities funded under the previous funding model have decreased by more than half, from Sh34.1 billion in 2023/2024 to Sh16.7 billion in 2024/25.
According to him, the suggested awards only provide 36 percent of financing for continuing students, which shows disregard for those who are already enrolled in universities.
“In addition to this significant reduction, the universities’ distribution of these grants for continuing students has not followed the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) formula of allocation, resulting in stark disparities among Universities, with some Universities receiving no allocation at all,” he stated.
The Committees observes that a new funding model has been implemented and is approaching the end of its first year of use, he continued.
The Committee is aware that there is a lot of false information out there and that many people are worried about this new funding strategy.
Regarding this, outreach programs must raise awareness and sensitization in order to guarantee that the model is recognized and valued by all parties involved and that potential students can accurately fill out the information needed to support their means testing.
The education committee’s report, which Melly presented to the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC), also raises concerns about the proposed funding for the Open University of Kenya (OUK).
This is because, for FY 2024–2025, the university received only Sh 670 million, while its resource requirement was Sh 1.59 billion, resulting in a Sh 922.1 million deficit.
Thousands students stare at missing varsity places over funds.
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