Private varsities to admit State-sponsored students

“Private universities need to be modelled on specific areas of interest such as Law, Agriculture, ICT to effectively produce highly qualified graduates,” said Prof Munavu.

Increasing access to higher education has emerged as one of the biggest policy challenges for Kenya, a problem that has worsened a biting admission crisis in the wake of faltering quality of learning.

Public universities have been particularly strained by the decline of government disbursements to the institutions forcing most to stop development of new facilities on the campuses.

The success of Kenya’s higher education is bound to be measured by the ability of the institutions to absorb all qualified candidates, irrespective of whether or not they meet the country’s human capital demand.

This will be taken as the return on investment from the billions of shillings being pumped into the universities by the government, parents, and guardians annually.

Admitting government-sponsored students in private universities is expected to increase the government’s interest in the management of the institutions that have for years had a free-hand in the running of their affairs.

Inability of the seven public universities to enrol all qualified students –– those with a grade of C+ and above in KCSE –– has provided a large pool of students to private universities that also contribute a significant fraction of their revenues.

Private universities have always been seen as a preserve for the rich households owing to the high fees charged compared to public universities under the government financed programme.

A nursing student at The University of Eastern Africa, Baraton for example, pays Sh76, 860 in tuition fees per semester compared to Sh8,000 for a government sponsored student taking the same course at the University of Nairobi.

The proposed partnership is however raising fears that private universities could lose their exclusive status and lead to a large movement of students to foreign universities.

Most expensive

Failure to adequately finance extra students could, for example, trigger a wave of university fee increments as institutions seek extra money to support larger student populations and adjust to the reality of diminishing government subsidies.

A fresh rise in university fees has the potential of making Kenya’s university education the most expensive in the region, posing the danger of mass flight of capital as parents seek affordable options in places such as South Africa.

Kenyan universities bear the dubious distinction of being the most expensive in East Africa, a development that is being blamed on the financing model.

Public universities for example have traditionally been financed largely through government allocations.