HELB Disburses Loans to 136,000 First-Year University Students

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has announced that more than 136,000 first-year students joining universities will benefit from government loans for the 2025–2026 academic year.

In a statement issued on Saturday, August 16, 2025, and signed by Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba, HELB confirmed that 136,634 applicants who applied under the Student-Centred Funding Model have already received their allocations.

The agency instructed beneficiaries to log in to their online portals to verify their loan details.

“All students who have submitted their loan applications are advised to confirm their upkeep loan award status from their HELB student portal in the Higher Education Financing website and liaise with their respective university administration offices for fee payment schedules. The universities are required to access the student tuition loan allocation via the HELB institutional portal,” the statement read.

According to CS Ogamba, the government has also revised the amount students will pay as tuition fees each semester. Depending on their level of need and the course they are taking, university charges will range from Ksh 5,814 to Ksh 75,000.

“Further, following the Government’s directive to lower the cost of university programs, the university fees payable by students per semester will range from a minimum student contribution per semester of Ksh 5,814 to a maximum of Ksh 75,000. The variation is dependent on the student’s level of need and the cost of the university programme enrolled in,” Ogamba said.

The minister added that the initiative reflects the State’s effort to make higher learning more affordable and accessible to all.

“This progress reaffirms the Government’s commitment to quality and equitable access to higher education, ensuring that no qualified student is left behind in their pursuit of university studies due to financial constraints. The Ministry assures all stakeholders that the Government remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting higher education as a driver of national development,” he added.

This comes two weeks after the Ministry of Education enacted a major reduction in semester fees for all public university programmes. Education CS Ogamba, via a statement on August 1, directed institutions to cut tuition by 15% to 40% and promptly update their digital portals.

This followed a July 31 circular from PS Dr. Beatrice Muganda Inyangala, which mandated that revised fees take effect September 1, 2025, for both new and returning students

The rationale behind the restructuring is to align fees with delivery costs and fairness concerns, informed by stakeholder consultations and data inputs.

The generous fee ranges across disciplines; for example, clinical medicine is capped at Ksh 75,000, while humanities programmes now require as little as Ksh 5,814 per semester.