Kenyan lecturers warn funding overhaul could put university payrolls on students

Every round of pay bargaining at Kenya’s public universities could become a push for higher student fees unless lawmakers protect government funding, lecturers have warned. Their union says a proposed overhaul leaves unclear who will pay for staff, research and other university services, raising the risk that students and institutions will shoulder costs now borne by the state.

According to Nation Africa Kenya (direct), the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has asked Parliament for substantial amendments to the Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026. In written submissions to the National Assembly’s education committee, secretary general Constantine Wasonga argued that financial support for students must be kept distinct from the money universities need to operate. The union says small technical adjustments will not resolve that problem.

Student aid is not a university budget

The bill would create the Tertiary Education Funding Authority, or TEFA, combining functions now handled by the Higher Education Loans Board, Universities Fund and TVET Funding Board. It would also re-establish the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service under the new law. The measure is one of six education reform bills and aims to make student financing more predictable.

UASU’s concern is that a framework built around student support does not guarantee universities a reliable operating budget. Tuition and assistance with student costs, it argues, cannot cover the full expense of teaching, research, staff pay and maintaining infrastructure. The union also points to clinical training and services that university facilities provide to public health institutions as obligations requiring their own funding.

The dispute already reaches into wage negotiations. UASU says the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and public university vice-chancellors cited the student-centred funding model in correspondence dated September 18 and 23, 2026, respectively. According to the union, those letters used the model to explain the National Treasury’s refusal to commit funding for the 2025–2029 collective bargaining agreements—negotiated pay and employment terms. Wasonga said no law or statutory instrument establishes that model as the lawful basis for financing public universities.

Wasonga warned that without a separate funding safeguard, each round of collective bargaining could become tied to demands for higher student fees.

A separate route for salaries

Lecturers began a nationwide strike on Friday after talks with their employer, the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum, broke down, the report said. UASU wants the bill to state explicitly that national pay-bargaining obligations are not student costs. It also argues that lecturers at public institutions are public officers whose pay and benefits should come directly from the Consolidated Fund or money allocated by Parliament.

The union is seeking a dedicated legal funding channel for university payrolls, teaching, research and other public-service duties. It wants salaries, allowances, pensions, gratuities and negotiated pay obligations kept outside student fees, loan repayments, TEFA commercial borrowing and private capital. Parliament should instead secure those payments through budget allocations and Treasury disbursements, it says.

The next test is whether lawmakers build those protections into the legislation. UASU has requested a full assessment of the fiscal and institutional impact before implementation, covering both student assistance and university running costs. It also wants transition rules protecting existing students, loans, scholarships and staff rights, alongside transparent consultation and parliamentary oversight of significant changes to funding criteria.