By BRIAN MUSYOKA
The University of Embu has unveiled an ambitious plan to grow its Endowment Fund to an impressive Sh10 billion, in a major push to secure sustainable financial support for financially disadvantaged students and eliminate education interruptions caused by lack of fees.
The initiative seeks to establish a reliable financial lifeline for thousands of needy learners by using returns generated from the fund to finance scholarships and other forms of student assistance. The university hopes the ambitious target will eventually bring an end to cases of students dropping out or postponing their studies due to financial constraints.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Daniel Mugendi disclosed that the fund, which was established in 2018, is steadily approaching the Sh100 million mark and has already supported slightly more than 5,000 needy student cases.
He said the university was determined to expand the fund's reach to accommodate the growing number of students requiring financial assistance, noting that the current resources were insufficient to address all the cases brought before the institution. "Our ambition is to impact many more students. That is why we have set a target of Sh10 billion, which will enable us to support thousands of needy learners who currently miss out on assistance due to limited resources," Prof. Mugendi said.
Speaking during an endowment fund mobilisation walk and family fun day, the Vice Chancellor explained that the university intended to build a permanent financial resource whose investment returns would continuously support students without depleting the principal amount.
He observed that achieving the Sh10 billion target would significantly increase the fund's investment income, enabling the institution to respond to a larger number of financial assistance requests.
The Chairperson of the Endowment Fund Board of Trustees, Lenny Kivuti, described the initiative as a transformative investment in the future of disadvantaged students, noting that the fund had evolved from a small emergency support kitty into a sustainable institutional financing mechanism.
Kivuti said supporting more than 5,000 student cases since its establishment demonstrated the fund's growing impact and its potential to become a dependable source of long-term educational financing.
The former Embu Senator further noted that the initiative had helped reduce reliance on public fundraising activities traditionally organised to rescue students facing financial difficulties, replacing them with a more structured, dignified and sustainable support system.
University Chancellor Prof. Musili Wambua called on other institutions of higher learning to embrace the endowment fund model, arguing that universities could no longer depend entirely on government capitation to meet their expanding financial obligations.
He pointed out that government resources were stretched across competing national priorities, while the demand for university education and financial assistance continued to rise.
Prof. Wambua maintained that institutions needed to develop alternative and sustainable funding mechanisms to complement government support and ensure that deserving students were not denied opportunities because of their financial backgrounds.
He cited established universities across the world whose multibillion-dollar endowment funds have become critical sources of scholarships, research funding and institutional development, urging Kenyan universities to adopt similar models.
The University of Embu's Sh10 billion ambition marks a major step towards building a sustainable education financing system in which financial hardships do not stand between deserving students and their academic dreams.
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