By Kamau Njoroge
Private Universities want the current model of funding students joining the higher learning institutions reviewed to ensure its sustainability.
The Varsities under the National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (NAPUK) maintain that the model is costly on their side and therefore unsustainable.
The Association quipped that students should be placed to the institutions subject to availability of adequate funds for the same.
NAPUK Secretary General, Dr Vincent Gaitho, who doubles as the Mt Kenya University (MKU) Pro Chancellor said that the number of students’ placements to the Universities through the Kenya Universities and College Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) should be reduced so as to enable the government fund all students.
Speaking during a public participation forum organized by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) taskforce on education reforms at Chania Boys High School in Thika, he noted that the Ministry of Education’s budget allocation for universities has stagnated over time despite the increased number of government sponsored students in both public and private universities, especially since the conception of the 100% transition policy.
“Budgeting and placement should be informed by the cost of training for each student. The current financing model has made sponsoring students a huge burden because they are now funded lowly compared to the cost of their academic programmes,” Gaitho said.
He divulged that the cost of training a student at a private university in a year is Ksh157,000 but they are funded Ksh 40,000 by the government.
“This leaves the universities with the burden of subsidizing government sponsored students,” he noted.
NAPUK boss also called on the government to address the “glaring discrimination” in government capitation of students where students in private university receive less than half capitation received by government sponsored students in public universities.
At the same time, NAPUK recommends that the institutions should explore other alternative income sources and see into it that there is prudent financial management of all university funds so as to solve financial hiccups bedeviling the higher learning institutions.
Private varsities in the country want the government intervention through the Ministry of Education in enhancing online teaching and use of e-learning platforms as well as enhancing the Commission for University Education’s Open, Distance and E-Learning (ODEL) platforms.
Among the projects NAPUK recommends to fully actualize ODEL is the government ensuring nation-wide internet connectivity. The Association maintained that the national government can partner with county governments in rolling out internet connectivity with free Wi-Fi hotspots in appropriate sites and open public parks.
“We do not see the need to introduce and operationalize the Open University of Kenya since it will be a duplication of the already existing open universities in most Kenyan universities under the ODEL platform,” Gaitho said.
He added that introduction and operationalization of the Open University of Kenya will be of significant cost on public financing given the already cash-strapped situation in most government sponsored public universities.
“The envisioned Open University of Kenya is as good as the ODEL platform already in place in majority of universities in Kenya,” he said.
University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor, Prof Stephen Kiama, who is also the chair of the PWPER in the central region, said some courses offered in universities are expensive to train and students pursuing them should be adequately funded.
He said Kenyan universities are recognized globally and need to be financially stable through adequate funding.
“The Government should ensure that it places students in Universities that it can adequately fund to avoid a situation whereby universities become burdened with financial struggles,” Prof Kiama said.
His sentiments were echoed by Prof Salome Kinyanjui of Presbyterian University and Prof Gitau Kamau of Zetech University who said that adequate financing of the higher learning institutions will enhance access to higher education by all Kenyan learners.
