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Two government agencies that fund higher education have said some students provided false information about their family background in their applications for scholarships and loans hoping to be placed in bands with higher funding.

In other cases, students withheld critical information that would have enabled the government to more accurately ascertain the appropriate funding category that suits them, Universities Fund Kenya and the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) have said.

Private internet service providers running cybercafes, the agencies claimed, discourage students from attaching all the required documents on the higher education financing portal especially when there are long queues of pending applicants.

These details emerged as the agencies raced against time to resolve thousands of appeals from university students who claimed they were placed in bands that did not reflect their economic circumstances, with universities and colleges reopening next month.

“We have already received over 10,000 appeals from Kenyans who are concerned about the band that they were placed in, but this is a continuous process,” Universities Fund CEO Godfrey Monari said.

“Part of the appeal is continuous because we want to really establish how needy these students are so that they can be placed in the correct band.”

Appeal process

The fund, he said, had sent its officers to universities to help students with the appeal process that runs until December.

The agency, he added, had started preparing its submissions to be presented in Parliament when the process of enacting a law that will establish a single education funding kitty starts.

“This process has to go through legislative amendments for us to have one kitty which can support all students. We were instructed by Parliament to prepare a paper that we have already started,” he added.

“So we will be able to advise Parliament on what modalities need to be [adopted] if we are to establish this kitty and the budgetary requirements for this proposal.”

The agencies also accused students of colluding with rogue national government administrators to falsify their personal information while applying for loans

The new higher education funding model launched by President William Ruto early last year sought to have each student enrolled in universities or Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges (TVETs) receive government support depending on their financial need.

It replaced the Differentiated Unit Cost financing model that the government used to disburse block funding in the form of capitation to universities and TVETS.

The new model established five funding bands, with the neediest students placed in Band One while those from more advantaged family backgrounds were put in Band Five.

’Discriminatory’ costs

University students in band one get up to 95 per cent in government funding, comprising 70 per cent in scholarships and 25 per cent in loans while the household contributes 5 per cent. Students receive annual upkeep stipends of Sh60,000.

Scholarship money drops by 10 percent across bands and students in band five get 30 percent in scholarships. They are entitled to upkeep of Sh40,000.

Students in bands two to five get 30 per cent in funding from loans.

But some Kenyans have lamented that the 30 per cent and 40 per cent costs that households are supposed to cover under bands four and five, respectively, are discriminatory.

TVET students in band one receive 92.5 percent in government financing, comprising 70 percent in scholarships and 22.5 percent in loans, while the household contributes 7.5 percent.

As with university financing, scholarship allocation drops by 10 percent across the bands to 30 percent in band five, while loans increase from 22.5 percent in band one to 43 percent in band five.

Households in band one with students in tertiary institutions pay 7.5 per cent, a portion that rises by about five per cent in each band to 27 per cent in band five.

Needy TVET students receive Sh18,600 for upkeep from the government, a figure that drops by Sh1,000 per band to Sh13,600 in band five.

Universities Fund data shows that a student in band one pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree that costs Sh122,400 per year is allocated a scholarship of Sh85,680, a loan of 30,600, and upkeep of Sh60,000. The household is expected to top up Sh6,120.

A student studying the same course but who is in band five get a scholarship of Sh36,720, a loan of an equal amount and Sh40,000 for upkeep, while the household pays Sh48,960.

A needy student studying medicine, which costs Sh612,000, gets a scholarship of Sh428,400, a loan of Sh153,000 and upkeep of Sh60,000, while the household pays Sh30,600.

His peer from a well-to-do family studying the same course is entitled to a scholarship of Sh183,600, an equal amount in loans, and upkeep of Sh40,000, while the family will pay Sh244,800.