Storm over plan to stop funding public varsities
A storm is brewing over the government’s plan to stop the funding of public universities.
Yesterday, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) took Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to task over remarks he made at the weekend announcing the government’s plan.
Speaking in Nairobi yesterday, UASU National Secretary General Constantine Wasonga asked the CS to clarify whether his statement was a roadside declaration or a government policy.
“Over the weekend, the CS made a very disturbing statement while he was at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. The statement has not made us sleep because we do not know whether it was a government policy or a roadside declaration, but I believe it was the latter, because I know how policies are formulated,” he said.
Annual admission
He said government funding for public universities was not commensurate with student population growth over the years, which had risen to an annual admission rate of 145,000 students.
“The exponential growth in student numbers has put heavy strain on facilities and human resources in public universities. However, the government has not been able to provide sufficient funds through capitation to enable public universities to respond to high demand promptly and effectively,” he said.
Machogu kicked off a storm at the weekend when he claimed that the government will no longer fund public universities and colleges, and instead called on them to explore ways of generating own revenue.
Machogu said institutions of higher learning must generate own revenue to survive as opposed to relying on funds from the government. “We are encouraging that they must generate their own revenue because the exchequer as it is right now is not going to be able to continue funding more because in Kenya education takes 25.9pc, so we have to find other ways of creating and generating revenue for universities and they have to look at other revenue streams,” he stated.
He, however, noted that a number of universities will have a challenge because they are used to public funds from the exchequer. “I am going to move around each and every university in Kenya because a number of our universities are faced with problems, particularly finance, you get them complaining about under-funding,” Machogu added.
Most public universities are facing a serious financial problems.
Tertiary institutions
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms team had initially called upon Kenyans to air views and recommendation on funding of tertiary institutions.
While paying a courtesy call at Governor Mutahi Kahiga’s office last week, Purity Karabai Mbaabu, who is a member of the team, said the forum is inviting views from both public and relevant education stakeholders in regard to funding institutions of learning and availing financial help to learners from poor family backgrounds.
Last year, data from the Universities Funding Board showed there was a shortfall in capitation for public universities that had almost doubled within two years, from Sh13 billion in 2020 to Sh27 billion in 2021 translating to a 100.7 per cent jump.
There are 39 public universities, with official data showing that students joining the institutions for undergraduate degrees dropped for the first time in three years to 448,482 in last financial year from 452,089.
The data further showed enrolment at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs) hit 265,095 from 217,440—making it the biggest rise in five years. The falling population of university students snubbing university education is a departure from the past when degrees were viewed by many as a ticket for promotion at the workplace and getting a job.
This has coincided with the government’s increased focus on technical colleges in the quest to feed the labour market with craftsmen and technicians.
Yesterday, UASU decried the allocation of fund to support government sponsored students in private universities while public universities ran budget deficits on account of debts to their suppliers and service providers.
“Government policy currently is that they are supposed to fund 80 percent of the DUC, but the government has been funding students at 46 percent of DUC. Consequently, universities have been forced to secure and offer their services on credit,” Wasonga said.
Archaic policy
The National Secretary General expressed concern that Machogu had been overpowered by cartels at the Ministry of Education and threatened to petition the President for his removal.
“When the CS Ministry of Education was being vetted in Parliament, he was asked this question and he promised to deal with the cartels at the Ministry. We are worried that now the cartels at the Ministry of Education that influence this archaic policy of taking government sponsored students to private universities are now influencing him again,” he said.
According to the union, the underfunding crisis has rendered public universities unable to meet their financial and statutory obligations, putting them in arrears of NSSF, NHIF, AND KRA remittances.
“Why can’t other state departments also be innovative so that they generate their funds to facilitate their activities? Why only public universities? Is the Ministry of Education also innovative?” he said.
The officials expressed skepticism about Machogu’s ability to resolve the crisis, citing the contradiction between his statements and campaign promises made by President William Ruto.
“The President committed to increase technical universities from three to eight. How do you increase them if you stop funding universities? The President also committed to bridge the gap of funding higher education from the current 80% and promised to increase it by 45%. The next thing he promised the higher education community was to increase research funding from 0.8 to two per cent of GDP. Does the CS know what his own appointing authority promised members of the university community?” Wasonga said.
Adequate funding
The union leaders expressed disappointment at Machogu’s decision to visit Dedan Kimathi University first rather than Egerton University, whose academic and non-academic staff had been receiving only 57 per cent of their salaries over the last three years.
“The staff has been greatly affected by the state of affairs since their pension schemes do not receive adequate funding from the sponsoring institutions. More often than not, bank loans are not serviced as the contracts provide for,” he said.
The union raised the alarm on the financial situation of public universities, saying that higher education was facing imminent collapse. Wasonga also said that Machogu’s statement had given public universities free reign to charge fees at market rates, as their privately-owned counterparts do.
“What is the implication of that? Does that mean education will be for the rich only? Who will allow him to do that? We will not allow him to do that,” he said.
According to National Chairperson Grace Nyongesa, the increase in student numbers has caused increased demand for university education in the country, straining public universities’ resources and affecting education standards.
“It is in the public domain that universities are suffering due to underfunding. You have seen for example Egerton University on strike most recently, and many more will do the same thing, because the crisis in the universities sector is something that needs to be addressed urgently,” she said.
Speaking separately, Nyeri Town MP Duncan Maina Mathenge castigated Machogu over the remarks, saying it world students from poor families who could not afford the high fees charged by private universities.
“It is the children of the hustlers who depend on that funding to get education as the wealthy take their children to private universities,” said Mathenge.
