Economy

Varsities face big test as 50,000 set for admission

varsity

University of Nairobi freshmen wait to fill in registration forms in May. A number of students reporting to public universities this week and next risk being locked out of lecture halls and hostels due to delays in processing Helb loans. Photo/File

Kenyan public universities face a major crunch with about half of the 50,000 freshmen who began reporting to the institutions this week either likely to miss accommodation on campus or be locked out of classes for non-payment of fees.

The students, admitted under the accelerated double-intake programme, are yet to receive loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) and therefore do not have money to register for courses, rent private hostels and cater to personal upkeep.

Helb CEO Charles Ringera attributed the problem to delays by the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), which admits students to the government subsidised regular programmes, in dispatching admission letters to the students who sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2012, making it difficult for them to process loan applications in time.

“Students started receiving their admission letters on Friday last week. So far only 1,000 [students] have applied,” Mr Ringera told the Business Daily in an interview on Tuesday.

Students are required to have admission numbers before they can apply for Helb loans. Helb has extended the deadline for submission of loan applications, which was set to expire at the end of this month, to September 15.

READ: KCB in talks with Helb to fund varsity students

But universities require students to pay fees in full before registering for courses and attending classes, meaning that those who depend on State loans and bursaries are likely to miss lectures or defer studies.

A number of the universities have already put out notices suggesting that students who won’t pay fees before the date of admission might be locked out of classes and hostels.

“All students are expected to pay full fees before registration,” reads a circular to students signed by Prof Madara Ogot, the deputy vice-chancellor in charge of academic affairs at Maseno University, which is set to admit its first-year students next Monday.

“Accommodation will be on first-come-first-served basis, upon completion of university fee payments.”

Kenyatta University (KU), which will welcome its freshmen a week later on September 9, also expects a number of students to miss out on accommodation on campus.

“We delinked accommodation to admission. Some will miss and will have to look for off campus accommodation,” said Olive Mugenda, the vice-chancellor of Kenyatta University.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) welcomed its first-year students on Monday this week while Egerton is to do so on August 30.

Moi University has pushed its admission date for freshmen back to October 28 same as Masinde Muliro.

The University of Nairobi is to open its doors to first-year students who sat their KCSE exams in 2012 on January 14 next year owing to lack of adequate lecture halls and hostels occasioned by the May double intake.

The financing and accommodation crunch at Kenya’s 22 public universities and nine public university constituent colleges reveals the stress of the double intake policy on Helb’s resources and the institutions’ infrastructure.

The policy introduced in 2011 was meant to increase higher education opportunities by not binding admissions to bed space, and allow learners to attend university in shifts.

However, it has not been matched with increased funding to Helb, recruitment of more lecturers and building of hostels.

ALSO READ: Kepsa pledges Sh500m to students’ kitty

Helb, which disbursed Sh5.1 billion in the period to June, estimates that student financing needs will triple to Sh14.8 billion this year, forcing it to step up its loan recovery effort with hefty fines on defaulters.

Freshmen at the public universities pay between Sh30,000 and Sh45,000 in the first year for tuition, medical, registration, activity and computer lab fees. However, the amount does not include meals, housing and personal upkeep.

University hostel charges average Sh3,000 per semester while private hostels charge as much as Sh7,000 per month.

Raymond Mtonyi, who has been admitted to Moi University to pursue a degree in Information Science, said he was banking on the Helb loan for his personal upkeep and pocket money.

“I hope to get the money by the time we report,” said Mr Mtonyi in an interview with the Business Daily on Tuesday.

Maseno will absorb 3,096 freshmen while KU will admit 5,491. The University of Nairobi is scheduled to take in 5,496 freshmen in January next year, having taken in 4,832 in May.

“We have developed a schedule to ensure seamless operations. The KCSE class of 2012 will report in January when the May lot will be taking a break after a year of studies,” said Ben Waweru, the academic registrar at UoN.

Overall, Moi University will for the first time in history take the lion’s share of freshmen at 5,792. Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology will be admitting 2,155 freshmen and JKUAT 2,151.

This year’s admission to public universities under JAB is more than double the 24,221 students enrolled in 2010.

JAB is due to be replaced by a new agency — Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service — under a new legislation that will centralise admissions to all public and private universities and colleges.

Undergraduates get between Sh35,000 and Sh60,000 annually from Helb alongside a bursary of up to Sh8,000. This translates to a minimum of Sh140,000 and maximum of Sh240,000 for a four-year course.

Of the total loan disbursed, Sh8,000 is sent directly to the university as direct tuition fees and the balance sent to the beneficiary’s bank account in two equal tranches in the first and second semester.

Helb has turned to accessing the databases of government agencies such as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to trace defaulters.

There are about 68,647 loan cheats who owe the agency Sh7.4 billion as at July this year, a two-month amnesty window granting defaulters a chance to pay up without penalties and interest

Helb is also is eying the Sh200 billion held in unclaimed financial assets to help plug the growing financing gap and cut reliance on State allocations.

It also plans to partner with institutions such as MasterCard Foundation, Ford Foundation and USAID by turning their bursary and scholarships schemes into a low-interest revolving fund to benefit more students and ensure sustainability of the funds.

The revolving, fund established in 1995, has so far disbursed Sh40.2 billion to 375,783 students. Only a fifth of loan recipients or 68,522 graduates have fully repaid their loans worth Sh6 billion.

Some Sh12.1 billion disbursed to 133,569 loanees has not matured while 98,194 beneficiaries are currently servicing loans amounting to Sh13.6 billion, translating to a performance rate of 62 per cent.

Additional reporting by Neville Otuki