A number of Vice-Chancellors now want the financing of university education to be undertaken by banks through a streamlined arrangement so as to benefit more students.
This comes in the wake of revelations that the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) is unable to fund more than 75,000 university freshers due to cash constraints.
Prof Stephen Kiamah (University of Nairobi) and his Mount Kenya counterpart Prof Deogratius Jaganyi said depending on the government’s budget to adequately fund hundreds of thousands of students was a long shot given the many priorities it has.
Speaking after participating in the O3 Awareness walk to raise consciousness on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Mental Health at Mt Kenya University Main campus in Thika town, the dons said banks were willing lenders and through partnering with the governments, they could reach many students with cheap loans.
Prof. Kiamah said the government needed to develop new models to finance students to adequately invest in higher education.
He said banks never run broke and could adequately fund students to access low-interest loans compared to the current lender, Helb, which has been faced with financial constraints adding that they too have elaborate mechanisms of loan collection as compared to Helb.
“Slowly, the government’s budget for Helb has been outpaced by the many students seeking higher education over the years. As stakeholders, we need to have new financing models to capture as many students. It requires more stakeholder involvement, otherwise, if we fail to invest in university education, we are likely to lose our future,” he said.
Prof. Jaganyi called on the government to reprioritize its budget to adequately fund Helb so that all deserving students get education loans.
He said students’ financial challenges were a recipe for depression among university students and should be tackled as a priority.
“We need to reprioritize our budget to finance as many students as possible to higher education. As universities, we offer few scholarships, but we can’t reach everybody. It is the responsibility of the government to secure the education of its citizens,” said Prof. Jaganyi.
Helb’s inability to finance the students caused uproar among university fraternity and other stakeholders.
The lending body said freshers who joined in September would have to wait till the Treasury offers it Ksh 3 billion for initial disbursement.
The students, majority from poor households, said it would be a tough semester with some stating that they might postpone their studies due to financial constraints.