As students wait for Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) opening of the application portal, the government through the University Fund (UF) on Wednesday, March 29, compounded more bad news for the students.
This was after the body revealed that university students' funding by the government would decline significantly.
The government body revealed that the funding was reduced every subsequent year due to a funding model introduced during former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration in 2018.
“The more the number of government-sponsored students enroll in universities each year, the less the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) becomes,” UF warned students to brace for more reduced funding.
The Ministry of Education in 2018 did away with a model that was introduced in 1992 that saw universities get a flat rate of Ksh120,000 per year for students under the government sponsorship program.
The government then adopted Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) which detailed that all university academic programmes be grouped into 14 clusters and the cost of teaching fixed for each.
Through the clusters, the government would then offer funding based on the amount of money needed to teach each course.
In 2018, the government started offering more funding to students taking the following courses; Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy and Architectural Studies.
Since the aforementioned courses have the least number of students in universities, the government started offering less money to public universities leading to a financial crisis.
Apart from the 2021/2022 financial year, the government reduced allocation from Ksh86 billion in 2018/2019 to Ksh78 billion in the 2022/2023 financial year.
The statement from UF came after they warned that not all students who attained a C+ in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) would receive government capitation.
“Placement will continue meaning everyone who scored C+ and above will get university placement through KUCCPS but government sponsorship will be based on available funds,” the board announced on Saturday, February 25.
KUCCPS, in an unexplained delay, is yet to open its portal for 2022 KCSE students to make their university applications.
Giving an update on the process, the board on Wednesday, March 29 stated, “The 2023 application has not yet opened. Candidates will be notified via the KUCCPS website kuccps(dot)ac(dot)ke or official social media handles when the application window is opened.”
