Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has announced that majority of students set to join higher institutions of learning for the 2023/2024 academic year have applied for government funding.
Machogu on Thursday said as of October 4 this year, a total of 238,714 applications had been submitted to the Higher Education Fund.
This figure stands against the total 269,112 students that were placed by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service to Universities and TVET institutions and were eligible for Government funding.
"This means that 3,608 and 26,790 students placed in universities and TVET institutions respectively are yet to apply," Machogu said.
The CS said the number is expected to rise after the KUCCPS validates the data of students who have transferred to different degree programmes or universities.
Further, Machogu said the Universities Fund and Higher Education Loans Board have commenced the processing of scholarships and bursaries for all students who have already applied.
He gave assurance to students, parents, guardians and higher education institutions that all efforts are being made to ensure that the loans and scholarships are released to applicants on time to facilitate their learning activities.
"In the meantime, Universities and TVET Institutions are under firm instructions to admit and keep students who have reported even in cases where they do not have any fees," he said.
Machogu said so far, 86.6 per cent (121,367) of the 140,147 students have reported to universities that have commenced studies for the 2023/2024 Academic Year.
He added that the number is expected to rise as more universities open.
The CS said student admission to TVET institutions is conducted on a rolling basis.
"I urge all the eligible students who are yet to apply to make formal application for scholarships and loans through the Higher Education Financing portal (www.hef.co.ke)" he said.
The ministry launched the application process for the higher education scholarships and loans for the 2023/2024 cohort on July 31 this year.
Although the deadline for application was initially September 7, 2023, this was extended to October 7, 2023, to give all eligible applicants the opportunity to submit their documents, in the spirit of leaving no student behind.
