CS Machogu’s offer confirms varsity funding crisis
With several days to go before the university loans application deadline, only 27.3 per cent of the eligible students have already sent in their requests.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has had to grant a reprieve for the students to be admitted without paying the tuition fees as their bursary and student loans are processed.
The higher education sector is at a crossroads. The government’s inability to shoulder the burden alone has pushed it to devise this new system.
At the core of it is an effort to encourage parents and guardians to pay for their children’s education. But as the majority cannot afford to raise the huge sums involved, the needy cases will be catered for. The applicants have been split into categories based on their economic status.
The new system has replaced the one that automatically supported all the students who qualified to join universities by providing a loan through the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb).
The biggest challenge with new system is that there is no guarantee that those who will obtain the loans, scholarships and bursaries for the academic beginning next month will get funding next year. But even more disturbing to education experts is that for the very first time, the ability to pay will largely determine who studies what and where. The more popular professional courses have been priced out of the reach of the poor, who must get funding or be locked out.
Applications through the Higher Education Financing Portal close on August 27. Some 10,000 private university students will also benefit. Students classified as most needy will receive 100 per cent funding.
Those who fail to get government support will have to fork out up to Sh300,000 to pay for a single year.
University dons are worried that the new model is pushing students to cheaper courses at their expense of their real abilities and talents. Many may choose arts-based courses, which are cheaper than, say, medicine, pharmacy or engineering.
The Constitution guarantees the right of all Kenyans to access to quality and affordable education. Time may be running out but the issues that have arisen should be used as a valuable feedback to tweak the system.
