Universities Are Told by MPs to Review Admission Letters.

It will be mandatory for all colleges to review admission letters sent to new students in order to update the tuition amounts.

The goal of the measure, according to Higher Education Principal Secretary Dr. Beatrice Inyangala, is to provide colleges the ability to specify the fees that households should expect rather than the total sum including government financing.
MPs pushed for this decision, criticizing the government for sending out letters with exorbitant fees that deter students from enrolling in the courses.
During their Tuesday appearance before the Education Committee of the National Assembly, representatives from the Ministry faced criticism on a wide range of matters pertaining to the funding and placement of students in higher education institutions.
Legislators questioned the university education funding’s methodology for classifying students into different bands for the purpose of awarding loans and scholarships, casting doubt on the current model of financing higher education.

“Did our nation go headfirst into this new finance model? According to Marakwet MP Timothy Toroitich, “many students of peasant farmers are claiming that the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model is working better than the current new funding model.”
“What are you doing about this? There have been cases where students apply to Kenyan medical programs instead of university courses.”
The new strategy decouples funding from placement, giving priority to a student’s financial needs. Universities now issue admission letters that include the full course fee because they take the cost of the courses into account. Due to the MP’s content, students are abandoning classes since they can’t afford them.
We’ve been informed that, due to the financial implications, students are being pressured to enroll in courses at universities that they can afford under the new model rather than ones for which they are qualified.  Where are these 47,000 pupils, and what is causing their fear based on the proformas they received? Oyugi Maungu of the Education Committee asked.
The government has now been directed to take quick action by the MPs.
Chairperson of the Education Committee Julius Melly said, “What the committee is telling you is to swing into action immediately, you need to withdraw the letters immediately, and have the letters with the household fees so that they can know what is expected of them.”
Inyangala responded by saying, “I will order universities to remove the letters. “The ministry also bemoaned the lack of full funding for higher education it had been experiencing for the past year due to financial limitations.
Of the Ksh. 102 billion allocated for higher education, the government has not yet released Ksh. 29 billion. According to the ministry, these delays will have a significant impact on students as well as universities.
“Students who rely on scholarships and loan disbursements for their maintenance while in school are also impacted by these delays; many face financial hardships that jeopardize their educational opportunities,” said Charles Ringera, CEO of HELB.
The ministry has also promised to examine the standards by which students are categorized into various financial help bands. The ministry claims that after evaluating the model’s performance over the previous 12 months, this was necessary.