Thousands of students preparing to join universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions can now apply for government funding after the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) officially opened applications for the 2026/2027 academic year.
In a notice issued on Friday, HELB announced that first-time applicants are now able to apply for undergraduate and TVET loans, scholarships, or both, through the Higher Education Financing (HEF) portal.
The move is expected to offer relief to many students and parents who have been waiting for the application window to open ahead of the September intake.
HELB has encouraged eligible students to submit their applications as early as possible and ensure they follow all the application guidelines to avoid delays in processing.
The board further requested the applicants to undertake the process at least one month prior to their reporting in their respective institutions in order to give them sufficient time to go through the applications.
For those students who are already registered in the portal of the HEF, they have been requested to log in and apply. If some students first registered themselves with their KCSE index number but later got themselves a national identity card, then they only need to update their information and do not need to register once again.
Unlike the past, applicants will no longer need to download any form to print. Once the form is successfully submitted, a confirmation will be sent out in the form of PDF file in the applicant’s email.
The HELB has once again reminded the applicants that the whole process is absolutely free of cost and has cautioned the students to be careful from the scammers.
This announcement was made days after KUCCPS had admitted 293,869 students to the degree, diploma, certificate and artisan courses in universities, TVETs and other tertiary institutions ahead of the September 2026 intake.
