Ensure universities remain centres of excellence

The proposed ranking of universities — which is intended to help students select where to study based on their career choices — is a welcome one considering that Kenya’s economy still needs specialists in various professions for it to compete effectively regionally while meeting the needs of its population in various sectors.

In the recent past, the visibility of Kenyan universities in Africa has been on the decline, partly because few of them have cultivated an identity as being strong in any one area of specialisation, say engineering, medicine, teacher-training or agriculture as was the case in the past when these professions were easily identifiable with particular institutions.

That is why the survey to be undertaken by the Kenya Yearbook, Synovate and the universities themselves comes at an opportune time.

With the country seeking strategies to grow into a middle-income country in the next eight years, it is imperative for institutions of higher learning not only to accelerate the rate at which they generate the right knowledge, but more importantly, become training grounds for the manpower requirements that will help Kenya meet its medium-term and long-term economic and social goals.

At the core of the review, it is hoped, will be a quest for a higher quality of education that will prepare the youth to offer solutions that will accelerate economic growth, sustain industrial and technological development and sustain high levels of job creation and value addition for Kenyan exports.

It’s important that even as the universities highlight their strengths, they should continue to be centres of excellence regionally by producing graduates who are well-rounded individuals with an edge over their competitors in the region.

This would enable Kenya to export human resource at a time when remittances from Kenyans in the diaspora has been on the rise.

Having more graduates working outside the country, without necessarily causing a brain drain, would help Kenya increase its forex inflow, which in turn, will boost the balance of trade.