The role of the Higher Education Loans Board in pro-poor management approaches to enhancing access to university education in Kenya

Abstract

The Government of Kenya (GoK) has, since independence, endeavored to provide quality and relevant education to its nationals. Increasing population; adverse economic performance; increasing cost of education;and introduction of cost-sharing in education financing have, however, hindered access to education. At the tertiary level, cost-sharing meant financing of university education by the beneficiaries. To ensure access to university education for all eligible students, the government established the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) in 1995, to advance loans and bursaries to students from poor families. Prior to 1995, these functions lay with the Higher Edu-cation Loans Fund (HELF) from 1950-1974, and theHigher Education Management Board (HEMB) from1974-1995), but these two did not stress the needs aspect. Instead, they aimed at improving access to uni-versity education by giving loans at a flat rate, regard-less of the individual students financial needs. This,however, became untenable with the rising number ofuniversity students and the dwindling financial resources