Ruto Hints At Reviewing Public Universities Funding As Debt Hits Ksh 50 Billion

President William Ruto has hinted at reviewing the funding model for public universities even as debt hits Ksh 56 billion.

The move will see public universities admit students depending on the government’s ability to support them and not the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) performance.

Currently, students who score the minimum university entry grade of C+ are eligible for government support.

If implemented, the new proposal will see an increase of self-sponsored programmes, commonly known as parallel.

“Funding for public universities remains inadequate, with multiple implications for their performance and capacity to contribute optimally to the national agenda

“I want to commit that my administration is going to ensure that we create a framework that makes it possible for every university to admit students that the Government of Kenya can support,” Ruto said.

This comes at a time when private universities have threatened to stop admitting government-sponsored students citing under-funding.

As earlier reported on WoK, National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (Napuk) said inadequate funding from the government has slowed down operations in the institutions.

Led by Napuk Secretary-General Vincent Gaitho vice-chancellors from the private universities said the amount of money they receive from each government-sponsored student is unfairly cut forcing them to incur extra costs.

“There is a glaring discrimination in the implementation of the differentiated unit cost (DUC) by University Funding (UF) where government-sponsored students in private universities receive less than half DUC received by government sponsored students in public universities

“The cost of supporting university education funding for government-sponsored students in private universities has occasioned some to opt out and may cause more to follow suit,” Gaitho said.