University funding: From the glory days of Boom to the complicated era of HELB and bands.

University funding: From the glory days of Boom to the complicated era of HELB and bands.

Kenya’s education system was financed by the colonial British school system until independence and for a little while after. Everything seemed OK until the British left, at which point the Kenyan government began laying out a plan for its people to live under less than ten years of self-governance.
Regional Universities of Great 3

As the 1960s progressed, regional universities emerged, and students wishing to pursue studies at these universities were required to attend a postsecondary school where their selected course was offered.

Generally speaking, Dar es Salaam University offered the law degree and related art degrees under the auspices of the East Africa Community, while the University of Nairobi offered courses in medicine and related fields.

There were just three universities in the entire region: the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar es Salaam, and Makerere University.

The earliest university students, particularly at the University of Nairobi, were few in number and had a comfortable life free from the burden of paying for their scholarships, taking out maintenance loans, or worrying about money for food. Up until the early 1970s, the first few fortunate students led carefree lives without having to worry about rent.

THE AGE OF BOOM

Higher education loans were first made available to university students in 1972 in order to pay for their tuition, living expenses, and books while they were enrolled in classes. To simplify financing for students pursuing higher education, the department of Higher Education Loans was established.

In this plan, the government would give the money to the colleges directly, and local banks would distribute the loans so that the students could access their bank accounts. The larger portion was paid as capitation fees straight to the university.

These were the crazy times at the university, dubbed as “Boom,” when students would turn villages crimson as they took their maintenance money. The cafeteria at public universities was stocked with delicious food during these fortunate times. The food was so lavish that occasionally students would take to the streets to express their disapproval of a dish like chapati that was absent from the menu.

Universities and the government as a whole began implementing cost-cutting initiatives in the early 1990s. The Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model was its official name. After their loans were repaid, university students had to cover their living expenses and tuition. Meanwhile, the government paid Ksh. 80,000 per student in capitation fees straight to the universities.

HELB’S FORMATION

Established in 1995, the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) provides maintenance loans to eligible students in order to supplement state support for higher education. The planned tuition for the university was Ksh. 16,000 at this time. HELB provided funding for half of it, giving each student Ksh. 8,000.

There was widespread fraud against the government funding agencies under the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) form of funding, including by the institutions themselves. For example, according to Joint Admissions Board (JAB) data, some colleges claimed to have more students, but in reality, not all of the students who were invited to enroll at a particular university reported.

more student counts would result in more capitation funds for the universities. Despite this, the financing that was promised was frequently less than what was actually budgeted.

Kibaiki’s Program for Funding Module Two

The government launched a financing initiative known as the “Module Two program,” or the “Parallel Degree program,” as it became widely known, in 2003, with the start of the late President Mwai Kibaki’s administration.

The previously slumbering and inadequately supported public universities received a significant boost in money and vitality thanks to this scheme. The parallel degree program primarily created an opportunity for public colleges to simultaneously provide private students and government-sponsored students degree programs.

On the other hand, the premium paid by the parallel students was greater than that of their nationals who were sponsored by the government. This program’s main flaw was that it exacerbated the bleak divide between the “haves and have nots” by pressuring “wealthier” pupils to pay more. Opportunities for students increase with money.

Another issue it encountered was dishonesty in how it handled the money it made. Due to the fact that wealthy students had more possibilities and economically disadvantaged students had to fight for fewer government-sponsored seats, the scheme also resulted in stark disparities in access to higher education.

THE NEW 5-BAND MODEL OF RUTO

The government allocated more funds to the higher education industry in 2023 in order to support instruction under the new five-band university funding model.

The new model requires students to apply for loans and scholarships directly to the Universities Fund (UF) and Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), respectively, as it breaks the connection between student placement and funding.

Today, household contributions, loans, and scholarships are combined to fund students on a progressive scale decided by a means-testing tool. The means testing tool places qualified applicants into five categories based on their assessments. It has entirely superseded the funding paradigm known as Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC).

In order to garner support for the concept, President William Ruto stated that qualified students will get maintenance grants ranging from Ksh. 40,000 to Ksh. 60,000, depending on their individual financial circumstances.

For example, the most disadvantaged students will be ranked in band one, which would grant them access to a 70% scholarship, a 25% loan, a 5% household contribution, and Ksh. 60,000 for maintenance. According to the new model, loans and scholarships are only available to students enrolled in public universities through KUCCPS; students enrolled in private institutions are only eligible for HELB loans.

Universities and TVET institutions would no longer be eligible for capitation-based block funding under the new model. Rather, household contributions, student loans, and scholarships will cover the cost of education.

Based on their household’s capacity to pay tuition, the government has categorized students into five categories; the more economically disadvantaged pupils are given more government loans and sponsorship.

Students in Band One, whose families make up to Ksh 5,995, will receive a 95% support from the government, which will cover 70% of their costs and lend them the remaining 25%.
Students in Band Two, whose families make up to Ksh 23,670, would receive 90% of government aid, of which 60% will come from scholarships and 30% will come from loans.
Students in Band Three, who come from households with incomes up to Ksh. 70,000, will get 80% of government financing, of which 50% will come from loans and 30% will come from scholarships.
Students in Band Four, whose families make up to Ksh. 120,000, will get 30% in loans and 40% in government support.
Students in band five, who come from families making above Ksh. 120,000, will only be eligible for 20% government sponsorship and 30% loans.
The goal of the new 5-band funding model is to guarantee that students receive their cash on time; under the old arrangement, delays were identified as a significant issue.

IN THE 5-BAND MODEL, DESOLATE

Concerns have been expressed over the government’s ability to accurately determine the income and need of each household in light of the new 5-Band funding scheme.

The system is complicated since households with incomes over Ksh. 120,000 may still be considered needy if a sizeable portion of their earnings is used for other essential or basic costs. The government has not made this obvious, yet there are many families with greater salaries who also have a large number of dependents.

The 5-band funding model does not examine how it will handle changes in income stability or mobility to levels above or below the starting amount specified.

The testing instrument’s consistency—or lack thereof—has been called into doubt by a number of observers who have also questioned why persons they know have been placed in erroneous income bands.

There are also legitimate concerns about the new 5-band model’s susceptibility to corruption and the possibility that students who don’t require much assistance will bribe their way into lower bands in order to obtain more government financing. This has persisted as a common reality in many equity-based initiatives over time, and the current 5-band university finance model exposes this fault.

Without including more stakeholders, all universities were instructed to price their courses, which they did and sent to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).

Very few people are aware of the process used to complete the exercise and determine the figures as of yet. This needs to be reevaluated in order to gain legitimacy and involve a large number of stakeholders.

President Ruto gave all public universities nationwide instructions on August 14 to recall admission letters for incoming students and send out new ones that are considerate of their parents’ financial circumstances. Implementing such populist measures could complicate the new fund’s administration.

Because of the implementing agencies’ limitations, figuring out a family’s income level is a huge undertaking.

There is a great deal of reliance, as evidenced by the National Registrations of Persons office, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), and even the cross-referencing of data on the poverty index with data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) to determine the origin of a given applicant’s application. In the end, nevertheless, the government’s classification of students into distinct bands must depend on their self-evaluations.

When education collapses, the country collapses as well since ignorance and pain are commonplace in the lives of the dishonest and the uneducated alike.

University funding: From the glory days of Boom to the complicated era of HELB and bands.