TY - JOUR TI - Higher Education Finance as a Public Good in Kenya KW - Kenya KW - higher education finance KW - public good KW - human capital KW - equity KW - student loans SP - 67 UR - https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v20i2.2726 AV - public JF - Journal of Higher Education in Africa EP - 87 SN - 0851-7762 N1 - This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher?s terms and conditions. ID - discovery10169823 VL - 20 N2 - This article discusses the transformation of the higher education financing model and how this relates to the concept of higher education as a public good in the context of Kenya. Following independence in 1963, the new Kenya government ? like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa that attained independence in this period ? considered the establishment of a university to be one of the symbols of a republic and of national advancement. The government valued the public role of university education during this early phase of Kenya as a sovereign nation, even when access remained highly restricted. But, equally, the private benefits of being a university graduate were evident to the Kenyan citizenry. For two decades, Kenya had only one public university ? the University of Nairobi ? but after 1984 the state rapidly expanded higher education, partly in response to demand. Several universities have since been established, both public and private. Concurrently, the government has pursued a cost-sharing financing model to support this rapid expansion, which is contrary to the notion of higher education as a public good to be provided free of charge. This article examines this transformation of the financing model together with higher education as a publi good and concludes that each has influenced the other in Kenya?s context. A1 - Oketch, Moses Y1 - 2022/11/28/ PB - CODESRIA - Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa IS - 2 ER -