- Thousands of first-year students have yet to complete applications for government scholarships and loans.
- Universities Fund CEO Edwin Wanyonyi has urged affected applicants to finalise submissions before August 31.
- The Fund projects scholarship beneficiaries will rise to 608,879 during the 2026/27 financial year.
More than 5,000 first-year university students are staring at a potential funding crisis as the August 31 deadline for government scholarship and loan applications draws closer, with thousands yet to complete the process through the Higher Education Financing (HEF) Portal.
The Universities Fund says 159,551 students had successfully completed their applications by August 20, 2026, out of 202,133 students placed in public universities for the 2026/2027 academic year.
However, 5,732 applications were still incomplete or ongoing, leaving the affected students at risk of missing out on government financial support as they prepare to begin their university studies.
Universities Fund Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Edwin Wanyonyi urged the affected students to move with speed and complete their applications before the August 31 deadline.
“We, therefore, wish to encourage the affected students to complete the application process by 31st August 2026,” Wanyonyi said.
The completed applications comprise 149,761 students who applied for a combination of scholarships and loans, 642 who sought scholarships only, and 9,148 who applied for loans only.
Thousands yet to complete applications
The figures highlight the growing importance of the government’s student-centred higher education financing system, which is designed to provide financial assistance based on students’ assessed levels of need.
For thousands of young people entering university for the first time, completion of the application process could determine whether they receive financial assistance to meet tuition and other education-related costs.
The Universities Fund released the latest figures on Friday during an event where it received ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System recertification from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).
Wanyonyi said the recertification was an important endorsement of the systems used by the Fund to process student applications and manage higher education financing.
“For us, ISO certification is fundamentally about trust,” he said, adding that students needed assurance that their applications and funding were being handled through transparent, reliable and accountable systems.
KEBS Managing Director Esther Ngari said the recertification demonstrated the Fund’s commitment to quality, accountability, continuous improvement and excellence in service delivery.
She said adherence to international standards was critical for institutions responsible for managing systems that directly affect access to education and public confidence.
Ngari noted that the Universities Fund plays a central role in providing sustainable financing for higher education and that strong institutional systems were essential to ensuring equitable access and effective implementation of the Student-Centred Funding Model.
Scholarship beneficiaries projected to rise
Beyond the immediate application deadline, the Fund is also preparing for a significant expansion in the number of students expected to benefit from government scholarships.
The Universities Fund projects approximately 608,879 scholarship beneficiaries during the 2026/2027 financial year, representing a substantial increase from the 408,879 beneficiaries recorded in 2025/2026.
The number of scholarship beneficiaries has grown rapidly in recent years, rising from 118,153 in 2023/2024 to 253,042 in 2024/2025 before reaching 408,879 in 2025/2026.
The expansion has also been accompanied by a major increase in government funding. Wanyonyi said government scholarships had amounted to approximately Sh47.9 billion over the three financial years to 2025/2026.
For the 2026/2027 financial year alone, government scholarships have been allocated Sh30.1 billion, pushing the cumulative figure to about Sh78 billion.
The Fund had also disbursed an initial Sh2.5 billion allocation to universities at the beginning of August 2026.
A further Sh974 million had been disbursed to private universities during the 2026/2027 financial year under the Differentiated Unit Cost framework.
Wanyonyi said the figures represented more than financial transactions because the funding directly affected the ability of students to remain in university and institutions to continue delivering education.
He emphasised that behind every application was a student whose academic future could be affected by whether funding was processed on time.
“When we process a scholarship application, we are not simply processing data. We are processing someone’s future,” Wanyonyi said.
Digital systems strengthen funding process
He added that the Fund was strengthening digital systems to improve the processing, monitoring and tracking of student financing.
The digital transformation includes the Institutional Portal launched in October 2025, which provides a centralised platform for exchanging information between universities and the Universities Fund.
The portal also enables real-time tracking of disbursements and allocations, helping improve visibility and accountability in the financing process.
The developments come at a critical moment for thousands of students preparing to transition from secondary school into higher education.
While the government has continued to expand scholarship support, students still have an important responsibility to ensure that their applications are correctly completed within the prescribed timelines.
For the 5,732 students whose applications remain incomplete, the August 31 deadline therefore represents more than an administrative date. It is a critical cut-off point that could determine whether they are considered for government financial assistance during their first year at university.
The Universities Fund’s latest message is consequently clear: students who have started but not completed their applications should finalise the process before the deadline rather than wait until the last minute.
With more than 202,000 students placed in public universities for the 2026/2027 academic year and scholarship beneficiaries projected to exceed 600,000, the scale of government investment in higher education financing continues to expand.
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But as the August 31 deadline approaches, the immediate priority remains ensuring that no eligible student loses an opportunity for financial support simply because an application was left incomplete.
By Hillary Muhalya
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