Economy

Strathmore leads E Africa varsities in ICT ranking

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The front view of the Management Science building at Strathmore University. Strathmore, which is ranked second in the EAC bloc after Makerere University Business School, was singled out for providing adequate infrastructure to access the Internet, online educational journals and digitisation of administrative processes such as payments and request for academic transcripts.

Strathmore led Kenyan private universities in beating their State-funded counterparts in the inaugural East Africa rankings based on adoption of information technology.

Twenty private universities were among the 37 Kenyan institutions that made it to the top 100 roll because of their e-learning applications.

Kenya took six out of the 10 top positions that featured the African Virtual University (at position six), Mount Kenya University (nine) and Kenyatta University (10).

Multimedia University College at position five in the region was the best public university in Kenya followed by the University of Nairobi at position eight, according to the study by CPS Research International.

Strathmore, which is ranked second in the EAC bloc after Makerere University Business School, was singled out for providing adequate infrastructure to access the Internet, online educational journals and digitisation of administrative processes such as payments and request for academic transcripts.

The institution has also partnered with Safaricom to set up the Safaricom Academy which offers students certified qualifications and experiential training in IT-related fields.

Multimedia University College’s strong showing was buoyed by its rich history in telecommunications training as it was previously the Kenya College of Communications Technology before it was upgraded in 2008 to be as a constituent college of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

Regionally, Uganda has 27 universities, the second highest followed by Tanzania (23), Rwanda (7) and Burundi six.

“Private universities have generally invested more in ICT than public universities in all the East African countries,” said Dann Mwangi, the regional director of CPS Research.

“Public universities performed poorly because the bulk of students supported by governments are admitted to study business and other related social science courses which overstretch the ICT resources,” noted Mr Mwangi in an interview with the Business Daily.

Spanish research firm Webometrics which ranked the University of Nairobi as the top university in Kenya followed by Kenyatta and Strathmore in that order.

The CPS International Educational Index 2012 is based on a university’s use of ICT infrastructure in e-learning, administration and collaboration with IT industry.
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