Inyangala grilled over university funding model

Higher Education and Research Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala had a hard time convincing senators that the new university funding model is a magic bullet to higher education in the country.

Inyangala, who appeared before the Senate Education Committee admitted that the new funding model has found itself in a storm because of inadequate funds, failure by students to admit their vulnerability status and bribery claims.

She told Senators in a session chaired by nominated Senator Margaret Kamar that the notion by the Ministry that students who went to National schools were able to pay for their university education failed to yield credible data.

“Placing students in various bands has been difficult because the Ministry of Education has failed to obtain accurate data on the students' vulnerability and the actual income of their families,” said Inyangala.

She said the Ministry conducted a survey to collect the data and found that 53 per cent had left their forms in the cyber cafés to be filled by the staff. She said this compromised data that was being collected to place the students in the right bands.

The Higher Education PS said there was an assumption that students who attended National Schools would fit placement in band three which faced challenges since some were studying on bursaries.

Laikipia Senator John Kinyua asked the PS why the Education Ministry could not engage chiefs across the country to collect data on vulnerability of students which could have assisted in circumventing the challenges they later faced in getting the correct data.

Nyandarua Senator John Methu questioned why the model has made university education unaffordable, citing the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) students would pay a paltry Sh16,000 while under the New Funding Model (NFM) a similar student would part with Sh90,000.

“This new funding model has made university education more expensive and unaffordable to many students instead of reducing the financial obstacles,” charged Methu.

Kajiado Senator Lenku Seki asked if the Ministry did adequate sensitization especially in marginalized areas for the students to make the right application to be placed in the correct bands based on their affordability.

“We would like Kenyans to be told what the Ministry of Education has done in areas like Turkana, Samburu and other areas where there are poor parents who cannot afford the bands that their children have been placed?” asked Seki.

Inyangala told the committee that the ministry in coming up with the parameters placed income bracket, poverty index and the number of children in primary and secondary as a parameter for placement of students in the bracket.

The Higher Education PS told the session that the New Funding Model was introduced to enhance equity and efficiency objectives of the previous funding framework based on the Differentiated Unit Cost.

“The New Funding Model encourages exclusivity by reducing financial barriers that limit access to programs that students qualify to pursue, this model was implemented in a context where 23 out of 40 public universities were technically insolvent,” said Inyangala

She informed Senators that its implementation has increased the flow of funds to universities and is projected to resolve the funding crisis in universities and that given time it would be the best model ever to be introduced.

According to Inyangala, 91,881 out of 145,514 student representing 63 per cent are distributed in Bands 1, 2 and 3 and that a majority of the students representing 73 per cent 132,430 students out of 145,514 pay fees of Sh60,000 or less each year.

Currently, students paying Sh30,000 and below are 54,274 representing 37 per cent, those paying between 30,001 and 60,000 are 52,169 (36 per cent), those paying Sh60,001-Sh90,000 are 25,987 while those that pay Sh90,001 and above are 13,084 representing only 8 per cent respectively.