Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has directed the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and the Universities Fund (UF) to open higher education funding portal on June 15, 2024 to allow eligible students to apply for funding.

In a statement to newsrooms, CS Machogu says that the results of the students funding application process on www.hef.co.ke will be released from July 31, 2024.

In light of this directive, CS Machogu says that all First-Year students will report to their respective universities based on their admission letters and joining instructions as advised.

The Ministry has also clarified that fees for each degree programme will not be paid by a parent/guardian. Ideally, the fees will be funded through three (3) components – Scholarship, Loan and Parents/Guardians (Household) contribution.

Upon results of the funding applications being released, CS Machogu says that universities shall notify all their respective First-Year students of the amount to be paid by parents/Guardians (Household).

“Universities and Funding agencies should immediately embark on sensitisation of students, parents/guardians and stakeholders on the Student-Centred Funding Model,” CS Machogu adds in the statement.

President William Samoei Ruto on 3rd May 2023 unveiled a new model of funding university and TVET students in Kenya after countrywide consultations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.

Under the Student-Centred Funding Model, the placement process of First Year students to universities was delinked from funding.

Based on this, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) publishes on its portal the full fees structure of each of the courses declared in Universities, alongside the cluster requirements of the degree programmes.

This model was implemented for First Year students who joined Universities and TVETs in September 2023.

As at May 2024, a total of 112,741 university students and 151,933 VET learners applied for scholarships and loans from the Universities Fund and HELB respectively.

A total of Ksh24.76B was disbursed to scholarships and loans for universities students, while Ksh11.3B went to TVET trainees.

For the first time since the government adopted the cost sharing policy in higher education, 100 percent of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Examination applicants received financial support to pursue their programme of choice in our universities and VET institutions.

This year, the second cohort of students joining universities will also receive financial support under the Student-Centred Funding Model.

Of the 201,146 candidates who qualified for University entry in 2023 KCSE Examination, 153,274 students have been placed by KUCCPS to various degree programmes in Universities.

Based on the placement results, some universities have released letters of admission and fees structures for the courses as displayed in the KUCCPS portal during the application process.