Relief for first-year students as Gov’t releases Ksh.3.9B for scholarships in public universities

The government has disbursed the first batch of Ksh.3.9 billion for scholarships to first-year students in public universities under the New Higher Education Funding Model.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu made the announcement on Saturday, saying that the funds will benefit the government-sponsored students who successfully made their applications through the recently launched Higher Education Financing portal.

“Beneficiaries of the scholarships are those who successfully made their applications through the Higher Education Financing portal (www.hef.co.ke) that was launched on the 31st of August 2023,” CS Machogu said in a statement.

The CS said that the funds would be deposited to all the universities by Monday next week to benefit a total of 115,892 First Year students who were successfully enlisted for scholarships by close of applications as of November 29, 2023.

“The Universities Fund will disburse the Sh3.9 Billion directly to individual universities for the successful applicants to cover their tuition fees based on the student’s individual need under the New Funding Model,” stated Machogu.

“All Universities will receive the scholarship portions for their respective students by 4th December 2023.”

The allocation, according to the CS, brings to Ksh.9.2 billion the amount of money the Government has so far released to first year students under the New Model launched in May by President William Ruto.

Last month, Higher Education Loans Board (HELB)  also released Ksh.5.3 billion for loans to the first coort of First Year students who did their KCSE in 2022.

Students were allocated their individual shares through the recently established Means Testing Instrument (MTI), which determines the student’s level of financial need.