Govt to Spend Sh90 Billion to Revive Collapsing Public Universities
The government will invest Sh90 billion this year in higher education, reviving 35 public universities that are struggling under Sh77 billion in debt.
At a training workshop for newly appointed Vice Chancellors, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machugu outlined the government’s elaborate plan to revitalize higher education and ensure the sustainability of university education funding.
At the workshop held at Sarova Whitesands in Mombasa County, he mentioned that the government would spend Sh90 billion on university education that year.
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He stated that effective utilization of these funds could significantly contribute to turning around the fortunes of universities.
Cash flow issues have prevented public institutions of higher education, primarily public universities, from meeting their financial obligations for close to eight years.
Universities owe more than Sh77 billion in unpaid salaries, statutory deductions, bank and Sacco loans, and other outstanding expenses.
Vice Chancellors, however, blamed the government for the financial crisis the universities are experiencing, stating that it did not provide the agreed-upon 80 percent of Differentiated Unit Cost.
Mr. Machogu stated that for years, public universities have been victims of poor governance, which has fostered the current financial crisis.
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He said that there had been claims that some of the vice chancellors had been agents of the negative trend of promoting negative ethnicity in the universities instead of promoting them as national institutions.
Mr. Machogu said that, in certain instances, there has been an over-recruitment of non-essential personnel at the expense of essential teaching personnel, resulting in unsustainable wage bills.
He noted that feeble systems that cannot ensure quality have prevented the majority of universities from reaching the top of world rankings for a long time.
He stated that there was a need for local universities to no longer remain at the tail of international rankings and to instead compete with other world class universities on the international charts.
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In addition, the CS stated that the Universities Fund and Higher Education Loans Board have initiated the processing of scholarships and bursaries for all applicants.
The CS added that the new model would also eliminate the risk of underfunding universities because it would center on students and be based on the actual cost of a program.
The funds, according to him, will also encourage universities to raise extra funds and improve the quality of education in order to attract more students in a competitive environment.
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Govt to Spend Sh90 Billion to Revive Collapsing Public Universities