Form Four graduates applying for State funding through the new portal are struggling with system challenges in the rush to secure loans, bursaries and scholarships since it was opened last week.
Some of the 285,167 applicants who were placed in various university and TVET courses have been facing challenges in logging into the portal in the last few days with less than 30 days to the deadline.
The Higher Education Financing portal was opened for undergraduate and TVET applications on August 3 requiring a number of documents such as email address, national ID, admission letter, birth certificate, and the learner’s phone number.
“The scholarship and loan portal is run by the Helb [Higher Education Loans Board]. However, they can visit the Huduma centres, any universities or TVET institutions as we have enabled all registrars to support,” said the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service CEO Agnes Mercy Wahome.
Helb CEO Charles Ringera said there was no problem with the portal since more than 2,000 applications have been received.
Under the new funding model, the applicants are categorised into four groups: vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy.
The new formula that will see the vulnerable get more support will use parents’ background, gender, course type, marginalisation, disability as well as family size and composition to allocate the funds.
The government has promised the fully fund the vulnerable and extremely needy students who comprise 29 percent of those joining universities and TVETs.
