In his view, the policy is financially unsustainable.
Dr Barchok said that the policy is the main reason why universities are facing financial problems. In his view, the architects of the policy want to ‘kill’ public universities and are demanding its reversal.
“Private universities should receive students who are able to sponsor themselves and they should position themselves to attract those students by offering competitive and marketable courses; and should never rely on the government,” said Barchok.
While attending a forum on education reforms in Kericho, Dr Barchok said that if public universities are going to survive the next ten years, the policy should be reversed and he vowed to push for a review of the same.
The governor warned that the financial problems facing public learning institutions were worrying and urged the government to act quickly to salvage the situation.
“It is time we save the situation before it gets out of hand,” he said adding that it had become a competition for numbers and not quality.
Barchok said that the Commission for University Education had lost direction in quality control by failing to guard public institutions so that private institutions could use them as benchmarks of quality education.
“The government should rethink posting students to private universities. They are encouraging commercialization of education at the expense of quality,” he added.
On their part, the Universities Fund had also submitted a request seeking a Kshs. 2.4 billion World Bank bailout over cash.
