Photo/NAPUK Chairman Prof. Simon Gicharu who is also the Mount Kenya University (MKU) chairman and founder. Photo: Courtesy
They want key agencies merged to form the National Students Financial Aid Corporation (NSFAC), significant policy and legal reforms
By JAMES WAKAHIU
Private universities in Kenya have proposed that students in both public and private universities be supported through inclusive loan products covering tuition fees, books and upkeep.
The institutions have also proposed significant policy and legal reforms to the university funding model, calling for the establishment of a state agency to oversee student financing.
Their umbrella body, the National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (NAPUK) has advocated for merging key agencies involved in university education to form the National Students Financial Aid Corporation (NSFAC). This is in contrast to the new university funding model, which limits students in private universities to loans.
However, the NAPUK idea aligns with recommendations from the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, approved by the Cabinet on January 21, 2025, at State Lodge Kakamega.
This comes days after the newly introduced university funding model was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the High Court. The High Court decision has been posing a fresh headache to universities to a point that it was compelled to revert to the old funding model for two cohorts of students.
The government is grappling with the new university funding model, adjusting the Means Testing Instrument (MTI) following a High Court ruling that annulled the model in December 2024, citing discrimination concerns. As a result, the government reverted to the old Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model to disburse funds to first- and second-year students affected by the ruling, which also has weaknesses.
However, private colleges says the crisis affecting more than 250,000 university students could be resolved via the establishment of an independent body to oversee the higher education funding and move away from reliance from the straining Exchequer.
In a letter to the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos, NAPUK chairman Prof. Simon Gicharu who is also the Mount Kenya University (MKU) chairman and founder, has recommended that Universities Fund and the Higher Education Loans Board be merged into a single, professionalised body with the mandate to fund both study and research.
“The context, together with the legal challenges facing the new funding model present the ministry with an advantageous opportunity to rethink the whole question of funding of higher education. Conceptually, it is proposed that the model should depart from a social-welfare orientation and move towards greater sustainability by funding students through loans that would be recoverable in future,” he noted.
“The focus of the government should be on promoting access by reducing the financial burden on the students and the parents, while also ensuring that it retains the ability to provide the same kind of support for the students seeking opportunities in the future,” Prof Gicharu says.
In the letter, Gicharu says the approach may be complemented with a level of performance- based scholarship grants, only to such a limit as the government can afford in any given financial year but hinged on highly prioritized government programs which are not necessarily market driven.
