University students could soon be forced to part with more money for tuition fee payment.

One of the recommendations by the presidential working party on education reform, a taskforce put in place by President Ruto to collect views and propose reforms to the education sector.

The taskforce, which presented its report to President William Ruto last week has also proposed a raft of measures aimed at improving the quality of higher education in the country; including easing the financial burden on universities by writing off debts owed by universities to statutory bodies.

The recommendations propose a fee increment to rescue the universities from the cash crunch they are currently facing. They recommend a three fold increase with average fees set at 52000 instead of the current 16000 per semester.

The statutory body also urged the government to increase its allocation to the universities as what the government is currently providing is far below the required amount.

In public universities, there is a short fall of about Ksh.164 billion, cumulatively from 2018/2019 to the 2022/2023 academic year. Private universities fair slightly better with a funding deficit of Ksh.56.96billion over the same period.

The report also suggests that the government writes off huge debts owed by universities to statutory bodies, which currently stands at Ksh.56.13 billion, including deductions for PAYE, pension, NHIF, NSSF amongst others.

The report also focused on the staffing of the Universities, key amongst their concerns was 28 universities not having a chancellor. It was also proposed that the president appoint chancellors to the Universities but an input from the CS Education and University senate should be considered.

It also wants the government to aim at increasing the enrolment of students in teachers training colleges that currently stands at a meagre 14.7%, or 3,922 students in 34 institutions, which have a capacity of 26,650 students.

In addition, the task force proposed an increase in vocational training institutions in the country by establishing a National Polytechnic in every county, Technical Vocational College in every constituency and a Vocational Training Centre in each ward.