Act as clouds gather over varsity funding crisis before
By Editorial.Team, October 27, 2023Almost three months after introducing a new higher education funding model that was hailed by the government as the panacea to the decades-old crisis that had bedevilled university education, President William Ruto’s government seems to be walking a tightrope as it dithers on releasing funds.
Hailed by the President himself as the long-awaited solution to the funding problem that had disparaged public universities in heavy debts, the Variable Scholarships and Loan Funding had categorised the formula for use to disburse funds to students into four. Students from vulnerable and extremely needy households were to 100 per cent funding while the needy and less needy were given 93 per cent. However, the model seems to have run into headwinds sooner than later in its implementation. Most of the 39 public universities were forced to reschedule admission of the 2023 student cohort to give the government more room to put in place administrative and operational structures.
By the time universities and TVETS started admitting students, the government was not yet ready and instead issued a directive to the institutions to admit all learners placed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service pending processing of their funding.
Almost two months down the line, the government is yet to release funds for first-year students, leaving institutions, learners and their parents and guardians in a quandary position.
Already tension is building up in most public universities and TVETs due to the government’s failure to disburse funds. On Wednesday, lecturers and students from the Technical University of Kenya staged a protest over the delayed funds that have seen their salaries delayed too.
University managements say the move to admit students without the financial backing they had expected has left them struggling to maintain their operations. The delay could be a powder keg if not handled well and with the urgency it deserves. President Ruto, himself a shrewd political actor, should be well aware of the South African student protest movement of 2015 that questioned the overall governance of higher education and raised issues of financial exclusion in public universities. So, devastating was the protest that no Kenyan would wish it to happen here.