HELB bows to pressure, reinstates old funding model

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has bowed to student pressure and reinstated the old funding model as it awaits a High Court ruling on the suspension of the Student-Centred Funding Model.

This decision means that first and second year students will now be funded under the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model, similar to their third year comrades.

HELB's Lending Manager King'ori Ndegwa confirmed that the government has already released Sh7 billion, though 180,000 students are yet to receive their funds. "For the last two weeks, we have been trying to find the best way to make payments, and we have now decided to pay students under the old funding model," Ndegwa stated.

The move follows sustained pressure from university students, particularly those from the University of Nairobi (UoN), who stormed the HELB offices at Anniversary Towers on Monday.