Education Cabinet Secretary, Ezekiel Machogu, directed universities and other institutions of higher learning to find alternative ways of raising funds.
Speaking on Friday, November 4, at Dedan Kimathi University, Machogu stated that the government could not continue bankrolling activities in the institutions of higher learning.
The Education CS thus asked universities to devise new strategies for raising revenue.
"I will move around every university in Kenya because most of our universities face problems, particularly finance.
"You get them complaining about underfunding, and we are encouraging that they must generate their own revenue because the exchequer as it is now, is not going to be able to continue funding more because, in Kenya, education takes 25.9 per cent," Machogu stated.
"So we have to find other ways of creating and generating revenue for universities. They have to look for other revenue generation streams," he added.
Following the directive, parents may be forced to dig deeper into their pockets to fund their kids' higher learning.
The transition policy dictates that students who get above C+ must be placed at institutions of higher learning by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
On the other hand, the exchequer funds almost 80 per cent of programmes and units for government-sponsored students.
This was in line with the 100 per cent transition policy which was adopted in 2018. The directive considerably increased enrolment in institutions of learning.
However, low and delayed funding has affected most institutions, including the University of Nairobi and Egerton University.
As of June 2022, both public and private universities had amassed a total of Ksh56 billion in debts. This compelled other universities to raise fees and pass other costs to parents.
With the latest government directive, students are expected to depend on loans Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) to fund their education.
