The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), Universities Fund Board and TVET Funding Board could be abolished and replaced by a new Tertiary Education Funding Authority if a proposed law sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah is approved.
The Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, seeks to establish the new authority with responsibility for mobilising funds to provide financial support to students and trainees in tertiary institutions through the proposed Tertiary Education Fund.
The fund would receive money from National Assembly allocations, investment income and repayments from beneficiaries of education loans.
Under the proposed framework, the authority would also oversee scholarships, manage data on tertiary education financing and recover loans issued to students and trainees.
The Bill would give the authority broad powers to raise funds through Treasury bills and bonds, concessional loans, government grants, savings schemes, unit trusts, commercial partnerships and other legally permitted sources.
It would also be allowed to seek private-sector financing and tap alternative sources of capital, including local pension funds, collective investment schemes, sovereign wealth funds and climate-finance programmes.
In addition, the authority would have powers to establish a savings scheme or financial product through which individuals could save towards future tertiary education costs.
The proposed authority would be governed by a board chaired by a President-appointed chairperson. Its membership would include the Chief Executive Officer as an ex-officio member.
Other board members would comprise the Principal Secretaries overseeing university education and technical and vocational education and training, the Principal Secretary for the National Treasury, and four members drawn from outside the public service.
The proposed chairperson and other appointed board members would serve three-year terms, with the option of being reappointed for one additional three-year term based on satisfactory performance.
