This archive report was first published on 19 August 2019.
Education CS George Magoha Calls for Overhaul of University Sector ¶
On August 19, 2019, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha released the 2019-2020 universities and colleges placement cycle results, sparking a call for a thorough review of the university sector.
Speaking at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi, Magoha challenged university managers to restore their institutions to centers of academic excellence, stating that the sector was at a crossroads.
He put on the spot 107 university programmes that either did not attract applications or no student was selected to pursue the degree courses considered uncompetitive, citing thousands of teaching jobs at stake in the looming shake-up.
Magoha directed the Commission for University Education to review the programmes to consolidate and scrap those that are unnecessary, stating that there are many programmes in universities that fail to attract a single student.
He called for the merger of university campuses and a freeze on the establishment of new ones, encouraging debate on the quality of teaching and the adverse effects of rapid expansion of the institutions.
Magoha also threatened to dissolve councils that do not add value to the universities, stating that some universities are established too close to each other and that some have up to 50 per cent of their staff drawn from one community.
