| dc.description.abstract | Most of the children who complete Secondary school do not make it to University. This is
due to many reasons that are social, environmental or economic in nature. Some families
cannot afford to send their children to university because the cost of university education
is too high to afford. Families associate education with benefits or losses that come as a
cost either directly or indirectly in terms of fees, transport, cost of accommodation and
food or as an opportunity cost associated with lower resources available for household
consumption. This opportunity cost will depend on family specific characteristics and the
value the parents attach to education of a child.
Apart from household characteristics, factors such as the capacity of the universities and
costs associated with some courses, due to the facilities used in those courses have a
negative effect on enrolment in university .This is more evident in enrolment in the
science courses like Medicine which admits a small number of students and the cost of
tuition is about Ksh 500,000 per year. This is beyond reach by most households.
The government policy through HELB to give loans to only regular programme students
also affects enrolment because the regular programme can only take a fixed number of
students due to inadequate accommodation.
Further still, environmental factors like the distance of the university from one's place of
residence, impacts negatively on inrolment in university. The further away the University
is from the place of residence the lower the rate of enrolment of a child from a household.
This is because the cost of transport, accommodation and food will be reduced if the
distance is short. | en |
