University lecturers have warned that Kenya's proposed overhaul of higher education financing could shift the cost of running public universities from the Government to students, putting further pressure on institutions already struggling with funding gaps.
Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) Secretary-General Dr Constantine Wasonga said the proposed funding framework must clearly separate financing for students from financing for universities, arguing that the two serve different purposes.
Wasonga said student scholarships and loans should not become an indirect mechanism for financing lecturers' salaries, collective bargaining agreements, research, infrastructure and other institutional obligations.
"The Government must clearly distinguish between student financing and institutional financing," UASU said in its submissions on the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026.
The warning comes amid the lecturers' dispute with the Government over the stalled 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), with UASU maintaining that academic staff in public universities are public officers whose remuneration should be financed through the National Exchequer or parliamentary appropriations.
At the centre of the dispute is the Student-Centred Funding Model, under which Government support follows individual students through scholarships and loans rather than being channelled primarily to institutions.
The Universities Fund says the model replaced the former institution-based Differentiated Unit Cost system and provides undergraduate financing through Government scholarships, loans and household contributions.
But UASU argues that directing money towards students does not by itself resolve the cost of operating universities.
Wasonga has questioned how universities would meet salary obligations if their income becomes increasingly dependent on student-related funding and fee collection.
He has also warned that linking lecturers' salaries to student fees could create uncertainty whenever students fail to pay or when Government disbursements are delayed.
The union says public universities already face severe financial pressures, with Wasonga putting their accumulated debts at more than Ksh100 billion.
UASU is therefore demanding a separate and predictable financing stream for public universities covering staff salaries, pensions, teaching, research, infrastructure maintenance and other public-service responsibilities.
The union also wants the proposed law to protect collective bargaining obligations from being transferred to students through higher fees or loans.
The dispute has intensified as lecturers press for implementation of their 2025–2029 CBA. UASU began a nationwide strike on October 2, 2026 after negotiations failed to produce an agreement on how the deal would be financed.
The union's position places the Government's emerging higher education financing architecture under scrutiny: whether funding that follows students can adequately support the institutions where those students are taught.
The Government, however, has promoted the student-centred model as a way of directing financial assistance according to students' levels of need while improving access to higher education.
The unresolved question is therefore not simply how much money students receive, but how universities will remain financially sustainable once student funding and institutional funding are treated as separate obligations.
For Wasonga and UASU, lecturers' salaries and national CBAs cannot become another cost passed down to students. The union wants Parliament to write explicit safeguards into the new financing framework before the proposed changes take effect.
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