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{
    "id": 1249205,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1249205/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ezekiel Machogu",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13458,
        "legal_name": "Ezekiel Machogu Ombaki",
        "slug": "ezekiel-machogu-ombaki"
    },
    "content": "The third part of the Question is that the number of self-sponsored students in private universities has been declining in successive years since the 2019/2020 academic year when it was 54.8 per cent compared to the 2022/2023 academic year when it was 20 per cent. This can be explained by the fact that an increasing number of students in private universities have been funded by the Government in successive years. We have also provided a table, indicated as Q10, which provides the details of the enrolment. For the same reason of increased Government sponsorship, there has also been a decline in the number of self-sponsored students in public universities from 42 per cent in the 2019/2020 academic year to 21 per cent in the 2022/2023 academic year, as shown in table Q11. On whether there are enough spaces in public universities, Section 56(1) of the Universities Act mandates the KUCCPS to place Government sponsored students in private universities. The designation of a university as public or private is one of the reasons that informed the decision. The KUCCPS has continued to place Government students to universities and programmes according to their choices, something that we have since rectified. We will also be sending other amendments in due course to this House for consideration. On the final part of the Question, since the Financial Year 2017/2018, university students have been funded based on the DUC programmes. The Government was expected to fund 80 per cent of the cost while the household funds 20 per cent. However, over the years, the number of students placed in universities has grown tremendously and remarkably thus posing challenges to the Government’s ability to meet funding obligations. Indeed, the Government’s contribution to the cost has been reducing from 66.4 per cent in the Financial Year 2018/2019 to what it is in this particular year at 48.11 per cent. This means that we are not able to provide the remaining 32 per cent to public universities. For private universities, the figure is even lower, at 18.11 per cent. This has led to financial challenges in many public universities. As a result, we have come up with a new funding system which we consider to be manageable. This is where Government scholarships will cover an average of 61 per cent, Government loan an average of 35.5 per cent and household contribution an average of 3.1 per cent. Further, we will use the mean testing equipment that we use at HELB to determine vulnerable students who will enjoy a scholarship of 82 per cent as opposed to a loan of 18 per cent. In this case, the household contribution will be zero. This is because such students are considered as highly vulnerable in our society because their income is almost zero. Extremely needy students will get a scholarship of about 70 per cent and a loan of 30 per cent, with the household contribution being zero. Those are families of an income of less than Ksh20,000. They will get between Ksh23,000 and Ksh50,000. Needy students will get scholarships worth 53 per cent and loans at 40 per cent while the household contribution will be 7 per cent. The less needy, who we consider to be anyone enjoying a salary of between Ksh70,000 and Ksh200,000, will get a scholarship of 38 per cent. If they so wish, they can get a loan of 55 per cent and the household contribution will be 7 per cent. The new funding model has various strengths that will ensure sustainability of public universities which are currently undergoing a lot of financial challenges. The funding model is student-centred. Universities will no longer be funded in terms of block figures. The funding model is based on the actual cost of a programme being pursued by a student. This will eliminate the risk of underfunding our universities as was the case under the DUC model. We have done analysis on the cost of programmes in our private universities vis-à-vis our public universities on various subjects. Examples are as shown in the Table below. For example, for Bachelors of Education and Arts, we have given this to four private universities."
}