This archive report was first published on 4 August 2019.
Published on August 4, 2019, a report by The Times Higher Education (THE) highlighted the struggles of Kenyan universities in maintaining quality standards. The case of 118 PhD graduates from JKUAT is a stark example of this issue.
The quality of graduates is a reflection of the competency of lecturers, student-lecturer contact, the quality of university curricula, and the availability of teaching facilities. A lower student-to-staff ratio can foster closer relationships between students and lecturers, facilitate quicker access to essay feedback, and encourage more interactive discussions.
However, university facilities in Kenya are often inadequate, as noted by Prof Mwangi Ndirangu of Egerton University: “university facilities in Kenya are the antithesis of healthy and secure facilities that can provide a stimulating/inspirational setting for the users”.
International recruitment could help attract PhD-level academic talent to Kenyan universities, but inadequate compensation, poor linkages, and weak recruitment procedures hinder this process.
Universities should prioritize continuous training for lecturers in pedagogy, discipline-specific themes, research supervision, and fundraising. Additionally, a benchmark on key performance indicators, such as the ratio of income from module II programmes to total revenue, is essential for improvement.
Webometrics 2019 ranking of world universities ranks the University of Nairobi as the first in Kenya, also first in East Africa and 990 globally. However, universities in Kenya generally fare poorly in teaching and research, the core mandate of a university.
To address these issues, the Commission for University Education (CUE) should set and enforce maximum class sizes, re-introduce tutoring by tutorial fellows, and initiate student experience surveys. University administrators should also consider hosting visiting lecturers and exploring the possibility of merging universities, as successfully implemented in South Africa.
