Varsity chiefs told to act on academic fraud by students

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has directed universities to tighten supervision of graduate studies following revelations that students are buying completed theses and projects.

Prof Kaimenyi, who recently left the University of Nairobi to join government, said the Ministry of Education would conduct its own investigations on the scandal exposed on Monday by the Daily Nation. (READ: Scandal of degree papers up for sale)

“It is the duty of the universities to ensure that those who are drafting the proposals and going ahead to carry out the projects are the real authors of such materials,” he said.

He went on: “The universities should tighten the rules and regulations to ensure that there are enough checks and balances,” said the Cabinet Secretary, adding that the government would move to end the vice.

Reacting to revelations of ready-made projects papers for sale, Kenyatta University Vice-Chancellor Olive Mugenda said her institution last year introduced “plagiarism text-matching software”, where all works submitted by students have to be assessed.

Plagiarism software

Prof Mugenda noted that since the introduction of the software, students who cheated in their work — proposals, theses and projects — had been caught. The software matches papers submitted by students to work on online databases.

“Every term paper, theses or projects have to be scrutinised using the software to ensure that it is the original work of the students,” Prof Mugenda said, adding that the university had also set up a centre of training, excellence and evaluation.

Here, lecturers are trained on how to figure out original ideas by students as well as the supervision.

A repository where all complete works by the students are dropped is available, making it difficult for current students to copy work done by their predecessors as it would reflect in the database.

University of Nairobi Vice-Chancellor George Magoha also noted that the institution had revised its rules and regulations, as well as developed an online repository where all works done by the students could be dropped for public viewing.

Prof Magoha said stringent systems had been invented to ensure that cheats were netted, giving the example of Kisumu campus where only one PhD student sailed through, out of the nine candidates supervised last week.

On universities producing “half-baked” graduates as claimed by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), Prof Mugenda dismissed the allegations as untrue, saying universities had regularly revised their curriculum and tailored it to the demands of the job market.

“We have constantly engaged in market research, and for KU, we do it every four years to get feedback on the market needs,” the VC said.
FKE boss Jacqueline Mugo had expressed disappointment with the quality of graduates.

“You employ the Masters students who have good papers but ultimately realise that they are not a reflection of their approach to work,” she told the Nation.

In western Kenya, various universities have come to terms with the fact that some students have been engaged in such fraud.

Masinde Muliro University acting Vice-Chancellor Asenath Sigot said the institution had come up with strategies to guard against such vices that compromise the value of degrees.

“We have not had such cases in our university but any student enrolled for a degree or Master’s course is supervised of which a logbook of the activities they are engaged in are recorded and in the event that there is anything contrary to what is in the logbook, disciplinary action is taken” said Prof Sigot.

Prof Sigot added that the students being examined could not escape if they didn’t work hard for the degree as the examination involved both oral and written evaluations.

Maseno University Vice-Chancellor Dominic Makawiti expressed satisfaction in the quality of degrees generated from the institution.

“At all levels of degree award, Maseno has put strategic measures to curb cases of people earning degrees they have not worked for; the level of supervision is enhanced at all levels within the schools and faculties,” he said.

Prof Makawiti stated that Maseno graduates had been “tailor-made for the current job market” not only as mere job-seekers but also as creators of opportunities for other students hoping to grow their careers.

In Kericho County, the University of Kabianga Vice-Chancellor Wilson Kipng’eno said the institution had never experienced a situation where any of its students had “bought” a degree, adding that the governing council and the senate had put in place stringent measures to curb such malpractice.

He said each thesis presented by student due to complete their courses was taken through a detailed follow-up process involving both internal and external examiners to detect any cheating.

Lecturers at two public universities at the Coast region also defended their students.

Prof Halimu Shauri, chairman of the department of social sciences at Pwani University, said they had a control system that did not allow students to buy project or thesis papers.

“Our approach is to mentor all the post-graduate students in a programme. Each candidate is given a supervisor to take him through the project or thesis,” he said.

Technical University of Mombasa acting Vice-Chancellor Josephat Mwatelah said the institution had a mechanism for detecting students involved in plagiarism.

Reported by Benjamin Muindi, MaryAnne Gicobi, Moses Odhiambo, Bozo Jenje, and Timothy Kemei