To achieve education reform in higher education financing the National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (Napuk) presented its extensive proposal to the Ministry of Education.
The Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba received the document on February 11, 2025, which seeks to transform the current funding structure because it raises sustainability and equity issues.
The Napuk model breaks with “social-welfare orientation” through its framework which establishes sustainability as its main priority. The association recommends students should receive most of their financial support through loan programs that promise future recovery therefore maintaining continuous funding for higher education.
The government should confine scholarship and grant awards to performance-based nominations that support priority educational programs.
The proposal demands that students at both public and private universities should receive appropriate loan support which focuses on funding their tuition costs and purchasing books while providing maintenance assistance.
The strategy establishes financial aid availability for multiple student demographics attending public and private universities.
Napuk offers various novel strategies for increasing revenue generation throughout higher educational institutions. The proposal involves implementing education bonds and using Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority funds as well as requiring employers to pay mandatory levies on their graduate employees just like existing levies in hotel and catering and industrial training sectors.
Napuk Chairman Simon Gicharu supports creating a new funding organization which he calls the National Students Financial Aid Corporation. The newly established funding body would receive legal authorization to obtain money beyond conventional government budgets which would increase student financial support.
Napuk supports these measures even though they might face opposition because strong reforms will secure Kenya’s higher education system’s sustainable future. The newly proposed establishment by the association emerges during an essential period when public and private universities face financial instability that compromises their educational delivery standards.
The Ministry of Education is presently reviewing the proposed strategy while sector stakeholders show great interest in future discussions about putting these recommendations into practice. Such proposed changes would bring important fundamental transformations to how Kenyan higher education receives funding and maintains sustainability.
Source: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/education/private-universities-radical-proposal-on-varsities-funding-4924132
