President William Ruto's government has announced a major shift in how university education will be funded, with Chairperson of the President's Council of Economic Advisors David Ndii saying government funding for universities will be removed from the national budget from October.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

While speaking during an economic event, Ndii said the government was preparing to move university financing into a market-based model in which the state would capitalise a fund over an extended period, allowing the fund to raise money from the market.

This would effectively move university funding out of the country's fiscal budget and into a separate market-based financing model.

"We are going to take university funding out completely from October we are taking that out completely of the budget into a sort of market funding model where the government just capitalises the fund over a long period but the fund actually raises money from the market," Ndii stated.

📌 What You Need to Know

According to Ndii, the government will stop paying for university funding through the normal annual national budget from October and instead create a fund that can raise money from investors/financial markets.

Once established, the fund would seek additional money from the financial markets rather than relying entirely on yearly government allocations.

The announcement comes weeks after President William Ruto announced that his administration will provide full funding for all students admitted to universities beginning September 2026.

Under the proposed arrangement, students would no longer be required to rely on the existing combination of government scholarships, loans and household contributions in the same way as under the Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding model.

Instead, the government will offer full funding, including tuition and upkeep for students within the period of study and will repay once they secure employment.

The changes, proposed under the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, currently before parliament, also seek to scrap the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the Universities Fund and the TVET Fund into a single agency, the Tertiary Education Funding Authority (TEFA).

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke