NewzNAIROBI,Kenya Aug 21 – The Universities Fund has received ISO 9001:2015 recertification from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), with officials saying the quality management standards will be critical as the institution expands its role in financing higher education. Universities Fund Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Edwin Wanyonyi said the recertification was more than an administrative achievement, describing it as a reaffirmation of the Fund’s commitment to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement in the management of university financing. Wanyonyi said the certification provides assurance to students, universities, the Government, taxpayers and development partners that the Fund has systems capable of managing its growing responsibilities.
“ISO certification is fundamentally about trust,” Wanyonyi said, noting that students must be assured that their applications and funding are handled through transparent and reliable systems, while universities require predictable and accountable funding processes. The Fund administers Government scholarships under the Student-Centred Funding Model, with financial need serving as a key factor in determining scholarship support for eligible students placed in public universities. Wanyonyi said the growing number of students qualifying for university education had increased the pressure on the Fund to maintain efficient systems.
He noted that 270,715 candidates attained the minimum university entry grade of C+ and above in the 2025 KCSE examination, up from 246,391 in 2024. This compares with 62,581 students who were eligible to join universities in 2017, highlighting the sharp increase in demand for higher education financing. The Fund reached 408,879 public university students through scholarships over the three financial years to 2025/2026, with the number of beneficiaries rising from 118,153 in 2023/2024 to 253,042 in 2024/2025 and 408,879 in 2025/2026.
For the 2026/2027 financial year, the Fund projects about 608,879 scholarship beneficiaries. Wanyonyi said the Government had disbursed about KSh47.9 billion in scholarships to public university students between the 2023/2024 and 2025/2026 financial years. A further KSh30.1 billion has been allocated for Government scholarships in 2026/2027, bringing the cumulative amount to about KSh78 billion.
The Fund disbursed the first KSh2.5 billion allocation… NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 21 – A total of 159,551 university students have completed their funding applications through the Higher Education Financing (HEF) Portal, with more than 150,000 applications including a Universities Fund scholarship, as the institution moves to strengthen the administration of higher education financing. Data from the Universities Fund shows that 150,403 of the completed applications included a scholarship component.
Of these, 149,761 were scholarship-and-loan combination applications, while 642 were scholarship-only applications. A further 9,148 students submitted loan-only applications, while 5,732 applications remained ongoing or incomplete as of August 20, 2026. The applicants are drawn from 202,133 students placed in public universities by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) for the 2026/2027 academic year.
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