How Kenyan universities plan to plug the funding gap after fee cuts
Higher Education PS Beatrice Inyangala said institutions are pursuing a range of measures to ensure survival. These include increasing student admissions, fully utilising existing facilities, and tapping into government funding through capitation, loans, and scholarships.
Public universities in Kenya are rolling out strategies to cover the financial shortfall caused by recent sharp reductions in tuition fees, a move aimed at easing the burden on students’ families.
Fee cuts of up to 75 per cent, announced in July and effective September 1, coincide with the start of the new academic year, prompting questions about how universities will remain financially stable amid mounting debts, rising wage bills, and unpredictable government funding.
Higher Education PS Beatrice Inyangala said institutions are pursuing a range of measures to ensure survival.
These include increasing student admissions, fully utilising existing facilities, and tapping into government funding through capitation, loans, and scholarships.
“Basically, it is all in the numbers and economies of scale. Take a university graduating 1,000 students but admitting 3,000 new ones—the revenue gap is automatically bridged,” Inyangala said.
She added that public universities have the capacity to admit 316,309 students in the 2025/26 academic year, but only 183,789 placements have been made, leaving nearly half the slots vacant.
Government funding has also surged following the fee reduction. Support through capitation, loans, and scholarships rose from Sh45 billion in 2022-23 to Sh85 billion in 2025-26, helping stabilise many institutions.
Inyangala noted that the number of technically insolvent universities dropped from 23 in 2022 to 13 in 2025. “Universities are gradually becoming more sustainable,” she said.
President William Ruto’s administration has emphasised the importance of making university education affordable.
Several public universities, including the University of Nairobi, Moi University, Egerton University, Maseno University, Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, University of Eldoret, and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, have implemented the new fee structure for students admitted through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service.
At Moi University, for instance, the School of Education reduced fees for fourth-year government-sponsored students by 76 per cent, from Sh33,750 to Sh8,000 per semester.
A notice accompanying the reduction stated, “This fee is subject to revision at the sole discretion of the university.”
At Maseno University, first-year students pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology with IT now pay Sh14,000 per semester, down from over Sh30,000.
The strategies adopted by universities aim to strike a balance between affordability for students and financial sustainability for institutions, ensuring that public universities continue to function effectively despite reduced tuition revenue.
