By Roy Hezron
Male students from public universities are the leading applicants of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), it has been revealed.
According to the data from higher education’s loans regulator, as captured by recently released Economic Survey 2021 report, the number of male loans applicants from public universities recorded an increase of 4.7 per cent to 128,300 in 2019/20, while that of female applicants recorded an increase of 2.7 per cent to 87,075 in the same academic year.
The data also shows that the total number of loan beneficiaries from public universities recorded an increase of 3.8 per cent from 203,700 in 2018/19 to 211,500 in 2019/20.
The number of loans applicants recorded a growth of 30.4 per cent to 388,700 in 2019/20 from 298,000 in 2018/19 academic year; due to increase in number of loan applicants from Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions and private universities.
“In 2019/20 academic year, male loans applicants accounted for 57.9 per cent of all loans’ applicants. The number of loan beneficiaries increased by 19.1 per cent from 293,200 in 2018/19 to 349,200 in 2019/20,” reads the report in part.
During the same period, the amount of loans awarded to successful loans applicants increased by 29.9 per cent from Sh11.7 billion in 2018/19 to Sh15.2 billion in 2019/20, mainly on account of an increase of amount of loans awarded to applicants from TVET institutions.
According to the report, the amount of loans awarded to female applicants accounted for 41.8 per cent of the total amount of loans awarded in 2019/20 academic year.
The data further shows that in 2019/20, the number of HELB loan applicants from public universities stood at 215,400, representing an increase of 3.9 per cent from the previous year; whereby 98.2 per cent of all loan applicants from public universities were awarded loans which went up by 5.6 per cent to Sh9.5 billion in 2019/20.
On the other hand, the number of male loan applicants from private universities significantly increased by 58.0 per cent to 22, 752 in 2019/20, while that of female loan applicants grew by 41.2 per cent to 15,489 in 2019/20.
The growth is attributed to continuous Government initiative to support students pursuing degree courses in private universities, whereby the number of loan beneficiaries from private universities increased by 43.9 per cent from 24,711 in 2018/19 to 35,548 in 2019/20.
During the same period, 93 per cent of all loan applicants from private universities were awarded loans which increased from Sh 1.2 billion in 2018/19 to Sh 1.7 billion in 2019/20.
Regarding HELB bursary, the total number of bursary applicants increased by 31.5 per cent from 201,600 in 2018/19 to 265,200 in 2019/20. During the same period, the number of applicants awarded bursary went up by 4.4 per cent to 40,235 in 2019/20, translating to 15.2 per cent of all bursary applicants.
The amount of bursary awarded grew by 7.1 per cent from Sh222.7 million in 2018/19 to Sh238.5 million in 2019/20.
Additionally, the number of bursary applicants from public universities increased by 18.7 per cent from 145,561 in 2018/19 to 172,818 in 2019/20 out of which 10.6 per cent were awarded bursaries.
However, applicants who were awarded bursaries in 2019/20 declined by 9.7 per cent to 18,250 while amount of bursaries awarded to applicants from public universities decreased by 1.7 per cent from Sh126.5 million in 2018/19 to Sh124.3 million the academic year that followed.
The number of male HELB bursary applicants from public universities increased by 13.5 per cent to 100,800 in 2019/20, compared to that of female bursary applicants that grew by 26.9 per cent to 72,058 in the same period.
Regarding private universities, the number of bursary applicants recorded a significant growth of 60.8 per cent to 23,757 in 2019/20 while the number of bursary applicants who were awarded bursaries stood at 2,828 in 2019/20, representing 12.0 per cent of all bursary applicants from private universities.
Bursary applicants from TVET institutions significantly grew from 41,273 in 2018/19 to 68,589 in 2019/20. During the review period, the number of applicants from TVET institutions who were awarded bursaries stood at 19,157
Amount of bursary awarded to applicants from TVET institutions increased from Sh 84.0 million in 2018/19 to Sh 95.7 million in 2019/20.
Government capitation to HELB rose by 17.1 per cent from Sh 7.0 billion in 2018/19 to Sh 8.2 billion in 2019/20; while loan repayments recorded an increase of 2.0 per cent to Sh 4.4 billion in 2019/20.
During the review period, loans repayment accounted for 34.5 per cent of total HELB funding from Government capitation and loans repayment. Total amount of student loans and bursaries awarded increased by 29.4 per cent from Sh 11.9 billion in 2018/19 to Sh 15.4 billion in 2019/20.
The data also revealed that the number of HELB loan applicants from TVET institutions more than doubled from 65,320 in 2018/19 to 135,046 in 2019/20.
The number of student loan beneficiaries from TVET institutions increased by 57.5 per cent to 102,100 in 2019/20.
Consequently, the total amount of loans awarded to students in TVET institutions increased significantly from Sh1.6 billion in 2018/19 to Sh 4.1 billion in the same period.
