Why universities should not ignore CUE warning

Commission for University Education (CUE) has warned universities not adhering to set standards and regulations that they risk being shut down.

This comes days before a quality audit inspection of all universities — both public and private authorised to operate in the country — starts on January 23.

In a press statement published in local dailies on Sunday, CUE chief executive officer David Some said that the commission is committed to safeguarding the quality of education in Kenya as stipulated in the Universities Act, 2012.

“The attention of the commission for university education has been drawn to the public debate on the quality of university education in Kenya. Consequently, the commission wishes to inform the public that it is undertaking a quality audit inspection of all universities, public and private, authorised to operate in Kenya,” said Prof Some in the statement.

The audit process, which is expected to be concluded by February 3, is set to focus on various key areas in the university such as admission requirements to degree programmes, quality and integrity of examinations and dissertations and the evidence of accreditation of academic programmes offered by the institutions.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i in November last year during the Cooperative University of Kenya graduation, warned universities against issuing degrees to undeserving politicians to aid them in contesting for elective positions, saying that such universities will risk their charters being revoked.

The other key areas include allocation of funds to cater for research and library resources as a percentage of the total institutional budgets to raise standards of research, measures undertaken by universities to rid academic, non-academic staff of ethnicity and student complements to embrace diversity and also reasons why some students have failed to graduate within stipulated timelines.

According to an Ethnic and Diversity Audit of Public Universities in Kenya report by National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) dated August 2016, six communities are sharing 20,485 slots of the 28,935 jobs in 22 public universities and nine constituent colleges leaving the rest to occupy only 8,449 jobs with communities such as the Turkana, Maasai, Kenyan Somali, Kamba and Mijikenda being named among those that were under-represented compared to their total population.

The commission has also called out members of the public to inform them of any institution breaching the set regulations, guidelines and standards as set out in the 2012 Universities Act.

“The commission reiterates its commitment to assuring quality of university education offered in Kenya. Members of the public are invited to inform the commission of any institution breaching the set regulations, standards and guidelines of 2014 in line with Universities Act, 2012,” said Prof Some.

Chancellors of various universities in the country are also set to meet this week to come up with measures to ensure that their institutions are not closed by CUE for not adhering to standards and regulations.