The impact of pay-as-you-eat on university education in Kenya: A case study of Egarton university, Njoro.

A new system involving direct cost-recovery from the beneficiary was introduced for the first time in public universities in Kenya in 1992. Under this system, popularly know as Pay-As-You-Eat (P.A.Y.E), direct payment for food by the student through a cafeteria system was introduced. This study was an attempt to establish the impact of this system on education in public universities in Kenya. The survey focused on Egerton University as a representative of the of the four state universities. A sample of 500 students and 16 members of university staff (seven academic and nine administrative) was randomly drawn. The student sample included only those persons that were best placed to provide the required information. Members of the community both within and around the university were also sampled to include parents (ten), landlords(ten) and kiosk owners(ten). Questionnaires, structured interviews, focus group discussions and observations were used to obtain data. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results indicated that P.A.Y.E had minimised and overshadowed any benefits of the system, on both the social life and academic standards of students. The most feasible suggestions to improve the system were identified as: i) provide subsidised food rates affordable by all students in order to minimise cooking in rooms; ii) disburse Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans to all applicants and then streamline the recovery mechanism.