President William Ruto has announced a major change to Kenya's higher education financing, declaring that every student admitted to a public university or college will receive full government funding from September, in a move aimed at ending financial barriers that have prevented thousands of qualified learners from pursuing their studies.
Speaking on Tuesday during the presentation of the New National Vision: Journey to a First World Economy proposal at State House, Nairobi, the President said the government had reviewed previous university funding approaches after finding that they had failed to adequately support both students and institutions. He said the new model will ensure that no Kenyan who qualifies for admission is locked out of higher education because of a lack of money.
Ruto called on Parliament to urgently pass amendments to higher education laws, including legislation governing the Higher Education Loans Board, to allow the new funding framework to take effect before universities reopen in September.
"Going forward, any university student, so long as they have passed their exam and they have been placed in a college or a university, each one of them will get full funding for their higher education," Ruto said.
President William Ruto receiving the New National Vision: Journey to a First World Economy report at State House, Nairobi on July 21,2026.PHOTO/PCS.
The President said parents who are able to contribute towards their children's education would still be free to do so, but stressed that students would no longer depend on their family's financial ability to secure a place in university.
"It will be the choice of parents if they want to pay. But if not, if parents will not pay, we know the model will pay for every child," he added.
Ruto acknowledged that the differentiated university funding model introduced by his administration had failed to deliver the intended results, saying universities experienced financial strain after government support fell far below the levels that had been planned.
"We tried the differentiated model. It didn't work because it made most of our universities suffer. While we promised 80 per cent funding, we went down to 40 per cent," he said.
He added that the equity-based funding model, which combined scholarships, loans and parental contributions, had also failed to fully address the cost of higher education for many families.
According to the President, some students from poor households had been forced to abandon professional courses despite qualifying for admission because they could not afford the required household contribution.
"We want to stop that. We want to make sure that if a child qualifies to do engineering or medicine, that time is over," he said.
Ruto urged lawmakers to fast-track the required legal amendments so the new funding model can be implemented without delay.
He said the latest reforms build on investments made by successive governments to expand access to education, including the growth of primary and secondary education as well as the recruitment of 100,000 teachers under his administration.
"Beginning September we can make sure that any child... will get full funding," he said, adding that the reforms are intended to ensure that "it will not matter the background of any child in Kenya. It will matter how good they are only."
The President said the new funding plan is intended to guarantee equal access to higher education by ensuring that every qualified student can pursue their preferred course regardless of their family's financial situation, marking a major shift in the government's approach to financing universities and colleges.