Kenyan universities fail quality test among world’s best in new ranking

The other public universities are almost at the tail-end of the ranking with Moi coming at 74, Kenyatta at 80 and Egerton at 97.

If these results are anything to go by, it means that graduates from Kenya’s universities will be subjected to a judgement based on the ranking of the institution they attended, which raises questions of employability, especially in the international labour market.

The situation is grave considering that local universities have been expanding at a breakneck speed with campuses and constituent colleges taking over middle-level colleges, sometimes in disregard to opposing views.

One of the immediate concerns would be the shortage of artisans if the colleges were taken over by universities, locking out students enrolling for the courses.

The appetite for university education has been rising, forcing the government through the Joint Admissions Board (Jab) to increase intake almost every year.

This year, for instance, the number of government-sponsored students joining public universities has gone up by 4,000 to 24,300.

There have been concerns that quality of education was going down, sometimes because of the growing enrolment, while the faculty continues to be overwhelmed.

Areas that have been identified as waning in value include research, which define most respected rankings.

Popular MBA

For example, the MBA programme has become more popular in Kenya among the working class, who have trooped back to class through the parallel programme.

But the size of classes has meant sometimes that students end up colluding to pass examinations while others have been accused of hiring researchers to help with projects that they cannot control or understand.

The Commission for Higher Education, which is the quality watchdog, has been on the spotlight, being asked to arrest erosion of content while matrices show Kenya is ripe for an expanded university education.