Detailed Information About New Higher Education Fund
Detailed Information About New Higher Education Fund. The government has implemented the New Higher Education Funding (NHEF) model, which comprises loans and subsidies for students placed by KUCCPS.
The NHEF concept was adopted as a result of an order issued by President William Ruto on May 3, 2023.
When the 2022 KCSE candidates are admitted to colleges and institutions for the fiscal year 2023-2024, the new strategy will take effect.
The idea is to overhaul the system for paying students in higher education by aligning financial aid, government scholarships, and loans to students’ specific needs and the costs of their programs.
The primary purpose of this innovative funding strategy is to provide students from low-income families with equal access to both university education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
When calculating funding under the NHEF, four elements will be considered: the chosen program, the household income band, affirmative performance, and government priority regions.
To statistically evaluate students’ needs, a Means Testing Instrument (MTI) including eight variables such as parental background, gender, course type, marginalisation, disability, family size, and composition has been designed.
Using these features, the state can precisely determine the needs of diverse households and allocate funding accordingly.
Scholarships exceed loans for students from affluent families, whereas loans outnumber scholarships for students from less affluent families.
The NHEF categorizes students into four groups based on their level of need: vulnerable, highly needy, needy, and less needy. Through loans and scholarships, the government will provide all financial assistance to students who fall into the vulnerable and severely needy groups.
The government will pay 93% of the cost of tuition for persons who are poor or less-needy; the remaining 7% will be paid by the student.
Students in need will receive up to 40% government loans and scholarships covering up to 53% of their tuition, leaving only 7% to be paid by families.
Detailed Information About New Higher Education Fund
Similarly, students who enroll in TVETs would receive government loans of up to 30% and scholarships of up to 50%, with household contributions of 20%.
After being contacted by KUCCPS, students who qualify for the funding must make a formal application through the Higher Education Financing site (www.hef.co.ke).
Continuing students will be unaffected by this new financing model because they will continue to get financial aid under the current government policy.
The government increased funding for higher education in fiscal year 2023-2024 to make it simpler to implement this new system.
The average student loan jumped from Sh152,000 to Sh208,000. This was accomplished by boosting higher education funding from Sh84.6 billion to Sh54 billion.
Furthermore, TVET budgetary support was boosted from Sh5.2 billion to Sh10 billion in the same fiscal year, or Sh67,000 per student per year.