The Principal Secretary (PS) in the State Department for Higher Education and Research Dr. Beatrice Muganda Inyangala has explained that the Government is yet to make any decision on increasing tuition fees in public Universities.
On Monday in Naivasha she said stakeholders have presented their views on University fee increment to the Presidential working Party on Education Reforms but the committee is finalizing their report which will be presented to the President William Ruto this month.
“The President will then look at the recommendations and advice us in the Ministry accordingly,” she said.
Last month, Universities proposed to increase fees from Sh.16, 000 to Sh.48, 000 for new government-sponsored students joining in September this year in order to deal with the financial crisis the institutions are facing. This raised an uproar by stakeholders saying this will make higher education to be out of reach for the ordinary Kenyan children.
Dr. Inyangala has called on authorities of the public varsities to be innovative and ensure they are creative and use locally available resources to provide quality education to the learners and at the same time source for funding from donors
“No government has been able to fund higher education alone, it requires multi-sectorial approach and partnership and that is why the Government has sourced for Sh.140Billion from United Kingdom (UK), a partnership that will see health related courses in the six public universities funded,” Inyangala said and expressed optimism that through partnership, the funding crisis at the public universities will be a thing of the past.
The PS observed that it is also vital to ensure that public universities are producing graduates who are fit, not only for our national development but also for global development
