Quality of Kenya’s University programmes is inadequate – Audit Report

dennis kibet

February 16, 2017 8:21 PM

According to the report, the programmes do not provide adequate contact time between the learners and lecturers.

Education Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Fred Matiang’i

The quality of school based programmes offered by many Kenyan universities is wanting.

This is according to a quality audit report carried out by the Commission for University Education (CUE) between December 2016 and January 2017.

The audit was done to establish the extent to which universities were complying with the Universities Act 2012 and the Universities Standards and Guidelines 2014.

The programmes also do not afford the learners sufficient exposure to quality degree research, library time and interaction between the learners themselves.

As a result, the commission will begin a process of working with the concerned universities to convert the school-based courses into quality part time programmes with sufficient opportunities for research and contact between the learners and their lecturers.

Annual reports

To ensure consistence and continued compliance with the existing institutional audit legal framework, every university will now be required to prepare and submit to the commission an annual report in a prescribed format.

The audit disclosed that in some universities, there were missing marks, delayed completion rates and unaccountability for students at all levels.

During the 2017 graduation cycle, all universities will be required to ensure all the students receive their transcripts and results prior to graduating.

Each university will now be required to establish and implement an effective electronic student and data management system within the next six months.

Universities that will fail to comply with this requirement will be severely sanctioned, including possible loss of their university status.

Other causes of concerns revealed include universities offering programmes not approved by the commission, abuse of the ‘Executive’ degree programmes and lack of adherence to the admission criteria as well as abuse of the Credit Accumulative and Transfer Systems (CATS).

dennis kibet