The government has, for the first
time, owned up to the challenges
facing the new university funding
model, whose implementation has
been halted by the courts.
Higher Education PS Beatrice
Inyangala said the model ran into
financial problems soon after it was
rolled out.
In addition, the students who applied for the funding gave inaccurate
data, making it difficult to place them
in the correct bands.
“The ministry conducted a survey
to collect the data and found 53
per cent had left their forms in the
cybercafés to be filled by the staff,”
Inyangala said.
This, she said, led to a piece of
near-generic information, thus compromising the data they were collecting to place the students in the
right bands.
The PS said bribery claims also
rocked the programmes, with chiefs
who were required to certify students’
economic status, often receiving
kickbacks to classify them as “most
vulnerable”.
The assumption by the ministry
that students who went to national
schools were able to pay for their
university education failed to yield
credible data.
“There was an assumption that students who attended national schools
would be placed in band three. This
got a challenge as some students were
studying on bursaries,” she said.
President William Ruto launched
the new model called the Variable
Scholarship and Loan Funding
(VSLF) in May 2023.
It categorised students into five
bands, with those from vulnerable and extremely needy households
eligible for full funding, while less
needy students could receive up to
90 per cent funding.
However, High Court judge Chacha Mwita ruled last December the
new model is unconstitutional and
discriminatory.
“It should have been subjected to
the public so the public comments
before its implementation,” the court
noted.
The court further said it’s the
government’s responsibility to fund
public universities and passing the
responsibility to parents is a violation
of the constitution.
Inyangala, who appeared before the Senate Education Committee on
Thursday, was at pains to convince
the committee that the new university
funding model is a solution to higher
education in the country.
The senators pressed the PS to explain how the ministry collected the
students’ data.
“How was the collection of the data
done, and why couldn’t the ministry
use chiefs to establish the vulnerability of the students?” Laikipia Senator
John Kinyua asked.
Nyandarua Senator John Methu
demanded to know why the model
has made university education unaffordable.
He said under the old funding programme, students would pay a
paltry Sh16,000, while under the new
model, a similar student would part
with Sh90,000.
