Varsities regulator set to have final word on courses quality
Prof David Some, CUE chief executive officer. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The 2015 Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill solely gives the responsibility to the Commission for University Education (CUE).
The amendment by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale is expected to end the rift between the commission and professional regulators over university education.
Professional regulatory bodies will have no role in accrediting university degree courses if a Cabinet-backed Bill is adopted.
The 2015 Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill solely gives the responsibility to the Commission for University Education (CUE).
Seventeen professional bodies are set to be affected if the proposed law is passed.
This comes after the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE) raised a storm after they suspended engineering and law courses respectively in a number of public universities.
The unilateral action prompted legal action and earned the two a public rebuke from Education secretary Jacob Kaimenyi who took issue with the public declarations calling for the closure of the learning institutions.
The amendment by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale is expected to end the rift between the commission and professional regulators over university education.
“For the avoidance of doubt, provided for under any other written law, the commission shall be the only body with the power to perform the functions set out in this section,” states the Bill.
The proposed law also seeks to amend the Kenya School of Law Act and provide for membership of the CUE secretary on the school’s council.
CUE will collect, disseminate and maintain data on university education, accredit universities, regulate university education and promote quality research and innovation, says the Bill.
The CLE found University of Nairobi’s Mombasa and Kisumu campuses, Catholic University of Eastern Africa and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University unsuitable to teach law courses and stopped them from admitting new students.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s application for accreditation was rejected while Catholic University was asked to show a closure plan by November 23.
The council also ordered Moi University’s School of Law shut, prompting the university to sue the regulator and obtain orders to keep its lecture halls open.
The EBK asked public universities to stop admitting students for engineering courses that it had not approved and immediately suspended teaching of continuing students
Among the institutions with questionable engineering courses include the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Kenya, and Technical University of Mombasa.
Meanwhile, CUE chief executive officer David Some has asked universities that have sent students home due to the accreditation crisis to recall them.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
