Ruto appoints committee on varsities funding model

President William Ruto has appointed a 129-strong committee to review the new funding model for higher education, which has come under fire over claims that it has made education more expensive and disadvantaged students from poor backgrounds.

In a special gazette notice dated September 16, the President on Monday announced the formation of a National Working Committee on Review of the New University Education Funding Model.

The committee, which comprises members from different fields as well as university students, will be chaired by Prof Japheth Micheni Ntiba, a former principal secretary and chief administrative secretary under the former regime.

A week ago, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Julius Ogamba, appealed to university students to call off a nationwide strike that was planned to start on September 9  to protest against the model.

He promised the students that a committee would be formed to review the model that was introduced last year.

 The announcement also comes just two days before the commencement of a nationwide strike by university lecturers over the implementation of the 2021-2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

On Monday, the national officials of the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) held talks with Mr Ogamba, but the outcome was unknown by the time of going to press.

According to the gazette notice, the committee will be made up of four streams, each with its leadership as well as membership.

They include the Workstreams on the Review and Refinement of the New Funding Model for Universities and Technical, Vocational Education and Training Institutions (Tvets). This will be chaired by Prof Karuti Kanyinga, with Dibora Zainab as co-chair.

The Workstream on Appeals arising from the categorisation of students into various eligibility bands for the allocation of scholarships and loans will be chaired by Walubengo Waningilo. Lucy Machugu will be the co-chair.

Dr Ruto appointed Robert Oduor Otieno to chair the Workstream on the Structure of Student Loans and Aron Kiprotich Bett as the co-chair, while Prof Mohamed S. Rajab will chair the Workstream on the Review of the Cost of University Academic Programmes. Patrick Malanga is the co-chair.

The chairpersons and co-chairpersons of the workstreams, together with Prof Ntiba will constitute the coordination board of the committee.

The committee will work for two months unless the President extends the period and will be based at the Ministry of Education headquarters at Jogoo House. It will report and be accountable to the President through the CS for Education.

Among its terms of reference is an evaluation of the means testing instrument (MTI) that is used to categorise the students into various bands.

This has been heavily criticised by students who say although needy, they were classified as able and therefore allocated inadequate funding.

The committee will also look into the current interest rates of student loans, penalties, and repayment periods.