President William Ruto issued a directive on May 3 ,2023 that sought to discontinue the differentiated unit cost model of funding by aligning placement, government scholarship and loans to the needs of students and their program costs. This news led to mixed reactions from various stakeholders in the education sector with many suggesting the government is doing guess work with lives of comrades.
Under the old funding model (Differentiated unit cost model) the government used to fund students where it provided scholarship of 80% and students used to pay only 20%, however this was not known to students as the cost of university programs was not disclosed.
The government used to provide equal funding to all learners which out considering social economic background of student meaning that students from richer families used to receive same funding as those from poor families.
According to KUCCPS CEO Dr Mercy Wahome in an interview with a local news channel noted that the new funding model separates placement in university from financing meaning that is if a student is placed in the university by Kenya University and Colleges Central Placement Unit (KUCCPS) the government will only provide funding if a student applies for funding. In the new funding model, the government seek to provide funding based on equity and not equality.
How the funding will be done by new higher education funding (NHEF) Model.
To provide the funding the government will classify students into four categories based on social economic backgrounds as follows:
- Vulnerable: Under this category the government seeks to provide 82% scholarship to learners and give them a loan of 18%. Meaning that students under this category will receive 100% full funding and everything is paid for them
- Extremely needy: Under this category the government will provide 70% scholarship and give them a loan of 30%. This implies students under this category will be fully funded in the new funding model.
- Needy; Under this category the government will provide 15% scholarship 40% loan that is 93% funded but the family will pay 7% to students classified to this group.
- Less needy: Under this category the government will pay 38% scholarship, 55% loan and the balance 7% will be paid by the house hold to students classified under this group
Those students joining TVETS will receive government scholarship up to a maximum of 50 per cent and 30 per cent in loans while their house holds will pay 20 per cent of the cost
How do students get the funding? Student will get the funding only if they apply though the higher education financial portal.
Funding application requirements
- A valid email addresses
- Valid telephone number which must be registered in your name to apply for loan
- KCPE AND KCSE Index numbers and year of the exams
- One pass port size photo
- Copy of National Identity card
- University admission letter
- Parent phone and their national Identity card
- Incase of parents have passed you will need a copy of death certificate and birth certificate
- Two guarantors, their national identity number and telephone numbers
- A copy of a letter if you were sponsored in secondary school
According to Higher education loans board HELB classification of students in the four categories will be based on the following.
Mean testing instrument of students which involves the following variables; Parents background, course type whether Science Technology Engineering STEM or arts, Previous school type whether private or public, expenditure on education -how much other siblings needs in education funding, gender, family size and composition, consideration on marginalization to determine who is needy.
These variables will statistically be used to determine the funding needs of students. Equally the funding will be specific to students and cost of course or program.
The new higher education funding model will not affect continuing students. Equally to implement the framework the government has increased funding from 54 billion to 84.6 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year. the budgetary allocation for TVETS has been increased from 5.2 billion to 10 billion
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