Stakeholders from six universities in Eastern Africa including JKUAT, Makerere, KU, MKU and University of Malawi, after formalizing a partnership with the Nottingham Trent University of UK to establish the Eastern Africa PhD Hub to strengthen doctoral training and supervision process and research capacity. PHOTO | SYDNEY KITHOME | NMG
The rebound of enrolment for postgraduate courses in public universities should match relevant research to deliver solutions to the challenges Kenya faces.
Data from the Ministry of Education show that the number of students enrolling for PhDs and Master’s degrees jumped 20.5 per cent to 34,403 in the year that ended June, the highest since 2019.
The rebound signals that companies have resumed hiring and promotions, including marginal pay increases. This has seen workers return to universities for the papers they need to secure promotions.
And on cue, the cash-strapped public universities, struggling to stay afloat, are promoting postgraduate courses to grow their revenues. Granted, postgraduate qualifications are still widely regarded as a ticket for career growth by employers keen on merit-based promotions.
Many universities, therefore, put emphasis on training for the job market.
Unfortunately, this often undermines the other key role of university education in society: research and development (R&D). We hope that public universities will pay more attention to R&D to justify their taxpayer funding.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
