Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has extended the deadline for applications for higher education funding by one month following a low application rate that has left out about a half of students with only one day to go.
Students joining universities and technical and vocational education and training (Tvet) institutions now have up to October 7, 2023 to put in their applications. Initially, the applications portal had been set to close Thursday September 7, 2023 but only 156,532 students (59 percent) have applied out of the expected 265,000.
The portal was opened on July 31, 2023 and so far 108,468 students have not yet applied, raising concerns that some of them will miss out on government support as only those who apply will be eligible for scholarships and student loans. Some students have complained that the application process is slow while others cite lack of infrastructure since the process is wholly online.
“The Universities Fund (UF) and the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) have been directed to put in place measures to commence immediate and speedy processing of scholarships and bursaries for all students who have already applied. Thereafter, the agencies will ensure the processing and disbursement exercise is conducted on a continuing basis,” Mr Machogu said in a statement.
The Ministry of Education has also waived the requirement of an ID for underage applicants. There are about 2,000 underage students who qualified and have been placed to join tertiary education.
“We encourage the students to apply for both scholarships and loans. We have noted that some are not applying for both,” said the CEO of the UF Geoffrey Monari.
Both the scholarships and loans applications are on the same portal. This is the first time the model is being used to finance higher education since the government ditched the differentiated unit cost (DUC). Mr Monari explained that the delay in the applications is caused by technological challenges.
“The challenges are validation of data being provided while updating but we have noted a great improvement on speeds,” he said.
Universities and colleges started reporting last week. CS Machogu has instructed public institutions to admit all students pending the processing of their applications.
The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (Kuccps) placed 140,107
At Chuka University, students were asked to produce evidence of having applied for the government funding as a condition for admission. However, they were allowed to pay any amount of money they could afford as part of their fees.
A total of 145,060
Continuing students appear to have a better application rate as already 262,628 out of the expected 280,000 had applied by yesterday, according to Mr Ringera. In all, 415,585 out of the expected 545,000 had applied.
Students have complained about downtime in the applications portal. Some universities have also set up help desks at their respective campuses to assist those in need. Students can also get help at Huduma Centres across the country.
Students will be classified into four categories, depending on their household income, among other factors. Students who will be considered vulnerable are from households without income while the extremely needy are from households with a monthly income of up to Sh23,671.
According the means testing instrument that will categorise the students, the needy ones are those with household income of between Sh23,672 and Sh70,000 per month while the less needy have household income of between Sh70,001 and Sh200,000 per month.
Other factors to be considered include: parental background, gender, course type, previous school type, expenditure on education, family size and composition as well as marginalisation and disability.
The model will only affect new students who sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2022. Continuing students will proceed with the earlier funding model.
“The level of funding in scholarships and loans will depend on the determined level of need for each student. The level of need will be scientifically determined to ensure that all needy students are adequately supported to pursue university education,” Mr Machogu said when he appeared before Parliament last week.
The new funding model is expected to cost Sh39.4 billion for the 2023-2024 Financial Year. Continuing students in their second, third, fourth and fifth year will be funded at Sh34.1 billion, which is 42.6 per cent of the DUC instead of the recommended 80 per cent. This implies that the State will still owe universities billions of shillings in unremitted DUC. Currently, the total debt government owes universities stands at Sh147 billion while the institutions owe creditors Sh61 billion.
“To support these students, the ministry recommends increasing funding for continuing students to 60 percent of the DUC. This will require an additional Sh7.4 billion to enable the universities meet costs of salaries and operational expenses. Without such an increase, the universities are likely to continue facing financial challenges for a longer period,” Mr Machogu said.
After closure of the portal, the Helb and UF will take seven days to verify the applications, after which the allocation of scholarships and loans will be done the following day. Disbursement of scholarships and the student loans will be based on opening dates of the various institutions. While scholarship funds and loans for tuition will be sent directly to institutions, the loans for upkeep will be sent to students’ accounts.
