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Kenya's university education faces a dilemma of increased demand for places against declining funding and increased graduate unemployment. The introduction of cost sharing, in an environment of increased poverty levels and inadequate educational loans and bursaries, has further aggravated matters. This article presents findings of a case study on 50 university students involved in small business ventures in an attempt to cope with their financial situations. The study sought to find out the characteristics of student entrepreneurs, reasons for entry into business and how they coped with studies while operating businesses. The study shows that most of the respondents came from humble backgrounds and ran business mainly for survival. These results have useful implications on the effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes in financing university education in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.

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PurposeThe purpose of this article is to report findings on the perceptions of quality of educational facilities in Kenyan public universities, and the implications for teaching/learning, and the learning environment.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted an exploratory descriptive design. A total of 332 and 107 undergraduate students and academic staff respectively from five public universities were randomly selected to participate in the study. The questionnaire was used for data collection.FindingsThe quality of the library, online resources and lecture facilities provided by Kenyan public universities did not meet quality measures of adequacy. They were unable to support the desired educational programmes effectively and facilitate the development of learning environments that support students and teachers in achieving their goals. The facilities were the antithesis of healthy and secure facilities that can provide a stimulating/inspirational setting for the users, critical measures of quality facilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe study investigated the quality of learning resources from the perspectives of students and academic staff. Other stakeholders could have given additional perspectives not reported here.Practical implicationsPerceptions of quality of facilities indicated in this study show the need for university managers to focus on the improvement of the same if the quality of learning and learning environment were to be improved.Social implicationsKenya's public universities can only develop the right calibre of manpower to meet the country's future needs by providing physical and other facilities that promote rigorous scholarship.Originality/valueImprovement in quality of educational facilities is important for all interested in enhancing student learning and learning environment anywhere.

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