The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has raised questions on the sustainability of the new funding model where funding to students in public universities and Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET) institutions shall be a combination of scholarships, loans and household contributions on a graduated scale, scientifically determined by a Means Testing Instrument (MTI).
Some of the variables which the instrument consider includes parents’ background, gender, course type, marginalization, disability as well as family size and composition; which will help the government to determine the needs of the various households and fund them appropriately.
For instance the instrument will look at the kind of primary school one attended (whether public or private); the kind of secondary school attended (whether sub-county, county, extra county or national school); whether parents, guardian, sponsor or a non-governmental organisation (NGO) paid your fee and whether you benefited from bursary among others.
Based on MTI, the vulnerable and extremely needy students (those from extremely poor background) will be fully funded by the government while the needy students (those from poor backgrounds) will get more government scholarship and less loans, the less needy students (those from middle class) will get less government scholarship and more loans.
And now UASU National Organising Secretary Onesmus Maluki Mutio states that if the MTI instrument will be used properly, it will not be hard to categorise the students and know who is vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy since it is a scientific instrument.
“If that instrument is followed properly, it is not very hard to categorise the students. However, this is Kenya and information is always corrupted. How are you going to be very sure of this instrument that we are using? You can be 100 per cent sure that maybe the children from upper class (the rich) will turn to be the vulnerable or the extreme needy, because if you know someone who knows someone, you will of course ensure that your child is given 100 per cent scholarship,” said Maluki.
“Otherwise who doesn’t need money? Everyone is looking for money and everyone want to save money, if you got away you can save if for example your child is admitted for a bachelor’s degree in medicine at the University of Nairobi that is paying Ksh700,000 per academic year, who will not want to save Ksh700,000 per academic year?” he added.
According to Maluki, the country’s institutions are not well developed to a level that such an instrument can be trusted to categorise students perfectly without interference by the upper class and corruption.
In the recently released new funding model by President William Ruto, which shall be implemented to students who will be joining public universities and TVET institutions in the 2023/2024 academic year, the instrument will help to categorise students according to four levels of need which is vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy.
Moving forward, universities and TVETs will no longer receive block funding in the form of capitation based on the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) whose sustainability has been a struggle following dipping in funding ratios from the government.
The government will fully fund the vulnerable and extremely needy students who the president said comprise 29 per cent of the students joining university and TVET’s this year, where the funding shall be through government scholarships, loans and bursaries.
According to President Ruto, for the first time students whose households are at the bottom of the pyramid shall enjoy equal opportunity in accessing university and TVET education, since their households shall not make any contribution towards the education of their children.
Students from needy households joining universities will receive government scholarships of up to a maximum of 53 per cent and loans of up to 40 per cent with their Households only paying for 7 per cent of the cost of their University Education.
Those who will be joining TVETs on the other hand under this category will receive government scholarships of up to a maximum of 50 per cent and 30 per cent in loans, with their Households only paying 20 per cent of the costs.
The less needy students joining university will be funded through a government scholarship of up to a maximum of 38 per cent of the cost of the programme, and 55 per cent in form of loans; with their households paying only 7 per cent.
For those who will be joining TVETs, they will be funded 32 per cent for government scholarship, 48 per cent for loans and their households only paying 20 per cent of the costs.
In the new funding framework, funding will be based on four criteria; choice of the programme, household income band, affirmative performance and government priority areas whereby MTI will be applied to scientifically determine the need levels of students.
Universities will now be required to declare and publicize the actual cost of their programmes to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) for publication prior to the placement of students, with all public universities being barred from charging additional levies and charges or raise its fees without the approval of the Universities Funding Board.
“Students who are eligible shall apply for government scholarships, loans and bursaries, as well as complementary funding from other sources, such as county governments, the National Government Constituency Development Fund and private companies. The University Funding Board shall share information with students on available sources of funding through its portal and streamline the application process,” said President Ruto.
The new model will apply to the new cohort of 173,127 students who will be joining universities and 145,325 joining TVET institutions this 2023/2024 academic year, though all continuing government-sponsored students shall continue being supported in line with the previous existing funding model (the DUC).
By Roy Hezron
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
Waaah,
But those already in private universities and they are helb Loan beneficiaries will they continue benefiting?