President William Ruto has revealed that the old university funding model almost crippled most public universities.
Through the old model, which entailed a differentiated unit cost (DUC) model, students received equal capitation from the government.
Speaking during a town hall meeting in Kisumu on Thursday, August 29, 2024, Ruto revealed that when he came to office in 2022, the government owed at least Ksh188 billion to universities, crippling most of them.
“The old model bankrupted our universities. When I came into office, the first thing that came onto my table is that 23 out of 40 public universities were bankrupt, technically insolvent because they had a lot of debts. We owed Ksh51 billion to private universities and Ksh137 billion to public universities because we didn’t make the right decision,” Ruto stated.
Ruto says to cure the anomaly, the government introduced a new model which is student-centred, ensuring that all student needs are catered for rather than having equal disbursements for all universities.
“Now we decided that we are going to have a model that is student-centred. We know this student is going to do medicine and we know how much the course costs. We must then fund that student to do medicine to the full. We know this student is doing education; we must fund that student to do that course,” he added.
“If you have a student doing medicine and it requires Ksh600,000 and you give him/her Ksh200,000 you will end up with a half-baked student.”
New funding model
In the new funding model, instead of a uniform grant, funding is based on the Means Testing Instrument (MTI) to determine the level of need for government scholarships and loans. The MTI system has grouped students into five bands, according to their needs.
“We are in the second year of implementing the new funding model. The first year was phenomenal. If you ask anyone running a university they will tell you that this model is way superior. In four years it is my plan that every university will be able to run its affairs without the challenges they have today. Many universities have never paid full salaries because we are not giving them enough money in the old model. It is the reason I have put more money into university education (Ksh127 billion more),” Ruto added.
“We must get education right. If we do not get education right, we will never get anything right.”
The cost-sharing model has been revised, and the funding ratios from the government, households, and other sources have been adjusted.
Band One entails students who are extremely needy and vulnerable. This group gets scholarships at 70% and loans at 25% while the household will contribute only 5% of the fees. The student gets upkeep support of Ksh60,000. This band is for families with a monthly income up to Ksh5,995
Band Two is for low-income families who require substantial aid and will get a 60% scholarship, and 30% in loans while they will have to pay 10% of the fees, with the student getting Ksh55,000 in upkeep. Band 2 is for families with a monthly income up to Ksh23,670
Band Three are students from families that have modest incomes. They get 50% in scholarships, 30% in loans, and Ksh50,000 as upkeep. Their families will pay 10% of the fees. Band 3 is for families with a monthly income up to Ksh70,000
Bands Four and Five, considered middle and high-income earners, will pay most of the tuition fees per household at 40% while the students will get 30% as loans and between Ksh40,000 and Ksh45,000 as student upkeep.
Band 4 is for families with a monthly income up to Ksh120,000 while Band 5 is for families with a monthly income above Ksh120,000.
Read:Â Education CS Issues New Directive To Help Students Amid Debate On New University Funding Model
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