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Varsities to lose out as govt shuts diploma and certificate lecture halls

Saturday April 18 2015
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Kenyan institutions stare at revenue losses as Cabinet Secretary prepares to table changes to Act. PHOTO | FILE

The full impact of a move by the Kenyan government to bar universities from offering diplomas and certificates will be felt in two months when over 80,000 qualified students miss places in the available middle-level colleges and universities experience sudden drops in revenues.

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi said he is set to have amendments to the University Act 2012 tabled in parliament to that effect.

“Somebody amended the University Act to allow universities to have certificate and diploma courses,” Prof Kaimenyi told The EastAfrican. “We are going to seek rescission of the amendment of the law once parliament is out of recess.”

The move is informed by the argument that universities should concentrate on their core mandate of offering degrees and conducting research. It is estimated that between 10 and 25 per cent of the university population in Kenya is comprised of diploma and certificate students.

“We want the universities to focus on what they do best, their central core, and that is higher learning,” Prof Kaimenyi said.
“We don’t want a situation where we will create antagonism between colleges and universities.”

The University Act 2012 abolished the Commission for Higher Education and replaced it with the Commission for University Education (CUE), which is mandated to exclusively manage degree programmes. Diploma and certificate programmes are now regulated by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA).

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The CUE said running degree courses together with diploma and certificate programmes compromises university standards.

READ: Why EA graduates are ill-equipped for the global job market

“The work of a university is production of new knowledge,” the commission’s chief executive, Prof David Some, told The EastAfrican.

“Offering diplomas is going backward in the universality of knowledge. To me, really, it makes a lot of sense for universities to concentrate on production of new knowledge. In other countries, universities don’t offer diplomas.”

Prof Some added that the Universities Regulations (2014) do not allow universities to offer diploma and certificate courses, which puts them in conflict with the 2012 Act. This contradiction is to be corrected through the University Amendment Bill (2015).

The university regulations state June 30 this year as the date for barring new intakes though continuing students will be allowed to complete their courses.

“This Bill is meant to make corrections to the miscellaneous amendments that allow universities to issue diplomas and certificate courses,” said Prof Some. “It will now be subjected to stakeholder consultations.”

Short sighted

Academics agree that this is the way to go but some took issue with the manner in which the change will be implemented.

“I think one of the major problems we are having with the Ministry of Education is that it is shortsighted and wanting to micromanage our university principles,” said Dr Samuel Nyandemo, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s School of Economics.

“Whereas this policy is a good idea, it is only good for the long term and requires some time for implementation. Our middle level colleges lack both the human and institutional capacity to absorb all diploma and certificate students. What the government needs to do is first to build capacity in these colleges and empower them adequately with human resource before they are allowed to admit more students.”

He added that, should middle-level colleges be unable to absorb all diploma and certificate students, the universities should step in.

“Stopping diploma and certificate courses in Kenyan universities will ultimately lead to a mass exodus of students to other universities in neighbouring countries, particularly Uganda,” said Dr Nyandemo.

Mount Kenya University chairman Simon Gicharu said he hoped for consultation before the amendment Bill is taken to Parliament.

“There is no regulatory framework that bars universities, both public and private, from offering these courses and if the law has to be amended, we need to be consulted so that we can discuss its pros and cons,” said Mr Gicharu.

“As a stakeholder in education, what I would like to see is a streamlined and vibrant post-secondary education. The decision to phase out diplomas and certificates from universities must be informed by a study. What will happen to the new universities that have come up and which were offering diploma and certificate courses?”

Both private and public universities in Kenya offer diplomas to about 10,000 students. This is the number that would have to squeeze into the available 50 public colleges and private institutions, some of which have come under scrutiny over the quality of their programmes. Many more could seek slots in universities in the region that still offer diploma and certificate courses.

It is instructive that a notice by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service last week showed that 150,000 students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination last year attained the minimum C+ grade required for admission in public universities.

However, only the 67,000 who scored a B of 60 points for males and, affirmatively, B- of 58 points for females will be admitted to degree programmes. This will leave 83,000 students scrambling for the more expensive parallel degree courses.

Another 130,000 students who attained the mean grade of C- required for admission to diploma courses will compete for the 41,550 places available in public colleges. Those who miss out will be left looking for opportunities in private colleges that offer diplomas and certificates but are more expensive.

The notice did not allocate universities any diploma places, which helped to increase the degree intake by 10,000.

According to Dr Emmanuel Manyasa, a lecturer at Kenyatta University’s School of Economics, universities should concentrate on their core mandate of producing professionals and adding to the range of knowledge, rather than making money from tertiary courses.

“That is a decision that is long overdue,” he said. “Universities should never be competing with middle-level colleges as this will only paint them in a bad light. This was a mistake in the first place.”

Kenyan universities fear they will lose millions of dollars in fees and other charges levied on diploma and certificate learners once the Act is amended.

The EastAfrican has established that some universities stand to lose more than $3 million annually, putting a major dent in their operational budgets.

For example, the University of Nairobi has churned out 9,571 diploma holders in the past five years (2010-2014), translating into close to 2,000 annually. This excludes certificate holders, some of whom are released into the labour market after every three months.

The university charges between $1,075 and $1,612 for diploma courses in the Faculty of Arts and $505 for certificate courses.

East African residents doing diploma courses at Kenyatta University pay $774 while non-residents pay $1,344, depending on the programme.

At Mount Kenya University, one of the largest privately chartered institutions of higher learning in East Africa, diploma courses go for about $430 per semester.

The amendment has raised questions on whether mid-level colleges have the capacity to accommodate the growing number of students who qualify for diploma and certificate every year as well as degree holders who pursue post-graduate diplomas to enhance their career prospects.

The government however maintains that the directive is a boost to the technical and tertiary institutions but has huge financial implication for universities, which have been minting millions of dollars in fees from students pursuing these courses.

“There is a raging debate over this issue that has not been concluded,” said Emily Maina, the acting director-general, TVETA.

The decree is widely expected to meet with stiff opposition from university administrators, who have seen funding from the central government dwindle and are increasingly turning to commercial activities such as hospitals complete with morgues, farming and consultancies to make ends meet.

Fees from diploma and certificate courses, as well as parallel degree programmes for those who do not qualify for the government-sponsored stream, have also come in handy.

Internationally, universities supplement their incomes through endowments from industries and other philanthropists but this is yet to pick up in Kenya.

Kenya’s technical and tertiary institutions have been facing dwindling demand because of the growing influence of universities.

Several colleges — including those offering specialised courses, such as the former Kenya Science Teachers College — have been taken over by universities while others have entered into partnerships to offer selected university programmes.

Sought court injunction

The Kenya National Association of Private Colleges (Kenapco) last week sought an injunction from the courts to restrain universities from admitting students for diploma, certificate and bridging courses. They also want the CUE not to license universities to offer mid-level courses forthwith.

Kenya has 52 universities and 748 tertiary colleges, according to the country’s Annual Economic Survey (2014).

Kenyan universities have been given a target to produce at least 1,000 PhD graduates every year to improve the competitiveness of the country in human resource development. University enrolment rose by 34.9 per cent to 324,560 in 2013 from 240,551 in 2012.

Plans are under way to harmonise the education system in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi so as to encourage mobility of students and workers across the region as part of the East African Community integration.

Part of the proposed harmonisation is the establishment of a full-fledged credit transfer system that will allow students to move between universities in different countries without losing credits already accumulated.

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