Students joining universities and colleges in May and September will be the first to benefit from the government’s changes to the contentious new university funding model.
The government has been tinkering with the scheme and will be introducing new variables to cluster students into categories that match their current financial situation.
According to Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, the variables have been adjusted to yield outcomes that closely match each student's unique capabilities.
“The issues raised indicated that some of the variables used did not accurately reflect the students’ financial capacity. Therefore, we have been refining that particular committee’s work, which includes assessing the cost of programs,” Migosi said on Friday at the Nyeri Polytechnic graduation ceremony.
The new funding model for universities moved away from the old block funding approach, instead opting to distribute government scholarships and loans based on a student’s financial situation and academic achievements.
Under this new system, students are identified in one of four categories: vulnerable, extremely needy, needy, or less needy. This classification determines how much funding each student receives.
However, many have reported being placed in the wrong category, which means they are forced to dig into empty coffers to pay for university or college.
Additionally, the model has established a tiered structure for degreorganising them into clusters based on their importance and economic value.
For instance, courses that are considered high priorities, like medicine and engineering, receive significantly more government funding, while those in the humanities and social sciences see a reduced level of support.
But according to CS Ogamba, the government is going to make changes to the cost of the courses.
"The issues that were raised were that some of the variables being used were not placing the students as close as possible to their financial capacity," he revealed.
Adding, "We have been cleaning that through the committee that was set up, including the cost of the programmes. The variables have been expanded so that they can produce results that are as close as possible to the capacity of the individuals."
The government scored big in court this week, after the Court of Appeal suspended an earlier High Court judgment that declared the model unconstitutional.
This means the government is free to continue with the scheme that has affected students in their first and second years of study.
