The number of students enrolled in private universities dropped by 15,827 last year in a period that saw the State discontinue funding of learners in these institutions.
Fresh data published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows the number stood at 96,460 from 112,287 a year earlier, a 14.1 percent drop.
This is even as the student population in public institutions grew 7.1 percent during the period to 482,586 from 450,638. The data comes just a year after Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced that the placements agency would no longer send government-sponsored students to private institutions.
“This year all our students will go to public universities unless as a parent you want to take your child to a private institution,” Machogu told the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education last year.
“No government grants will be given to private universities. We have said and it’s now a policy that grants will only be given to public universities.” Earlier this year, Parliament accelerated the bid after Christopher Aseka published the Universities (Amendment) (No3) Bill of 2023, kickstarting the ban process.
