Lawsuits by varsity students reveal significance of brand

What is in a name? One might ask. Or, what is in the name of a higher learning institution?

This might sound misplaced but students are turning to courts to compel their 'mother' universities to graduate them — and not constituent colleges or new universities where they undertook their studies.

Moi University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and the University of Nairobi are some of the institutions that have found themselves in courts over the issue.

Such a case has found its way into the country’s top court, after five judges admitted for hearing a dispute between Moi University and former student Oindi Zaippeline.

Karatina University, a former constituent college of Moi, has been listed as the second respondent in the case.

It all started when Mr Zaippeline and 39 other students were admitted to Moi University in 2009.

CHANGE

Then, Karatina University was known as Central Kenya campus, a constituent college of Moi. He was to pursue a four-year course leading to award of a bachelor’s degree.

One year later, on October 1, 2010, the campus transformed into Karatina University College. Through a Legal Notice, the college was informed: “The degrees and postgraduate diplomas to be awarded by (Karatina) University College shall be the degrees and postgraduate diplomas conferred by Moi University.”

Two months before the students completed their studies, the institution obtained a charter and transformed into a full-fledged university known as Karatina University.

Paragraph 33 of the Charter stated that “students of the former Karatina University College who were pursuing degrees, diplomas and other certificate programmes shall be allowed to complete their courses and be awarded degrees, diplomas and certificates of Karatina University.

Upon completion of their studies, Mr Zaippeline and his colleagues said they wished to be awarded a degree by Moi University, and not the new and relatively unknown Karatina University.

DISMISSED

Moi University dismissed their case, saying they were strangers, forcing them to move to the High Court.

In the High Court, the students sought an injunction to compel Moi University to award them degrees.

Justice James Wakiaga later dismissed the case. But still determined, Mr Zaippeline moved to the Appellate Court and three judges reversed the decision and granted the former student the orders he had sought.

Aggrieved, Moi University sought a certification from the Court of Appeal, allowing the institution to challenge the decision at the Supreme Court. The prayer was dismissed but Moi University went directly to the apex court and got the permission.

In their ruling, five judges of the Supreme Court said, “Upon consideration of these rival submissions alongside the said principles governing the grant of certification to appeal to this court, we find that the issue of whether a university can award a degree to a student who was no longer registered with it and whom it did not examine is a matter of general public importance.”

APPEAL

In the second appeal, Moi University maintains that it could not award a degree to a student who was no longer registered with it and whom it did not examine.

The student said, on his part, that his relationship with Moi University was contractual and he had a legitimate expectation to be awarded a degree by Moi University and not Karatina.

The Supreme Court judges, led by Chief Justice David Maraga, said they would consider, among other issues, when a student is admitted to study in a specific university, whether there is a legitimate expectation that upon successfully undertaking the study and passing all examinations, the student shall be awarded and conferred a degree of that specific university.

“Can such a student be conferred a degree of any other university that did not admit, teach or examine him?” asked Justices Maraga, DJC Philomena Mwilu, JB Ojwang’, Smokin Wanjala and Njoki Ndung’u.

CONTRACT

The Court of Appeal had found that the relationship between Moi University and the former student is contractual.

When the students were admitted to the university in 2009, Karatina did not exist.

“Although there was a physical campus known as “Central Campus” located at Karatina town, the same was simply a locus of study designated by the 2nd respondent (Moi); it is our finding that the 1st respondent (Karatina) did not exist in 2009 and it had no capacity to admit and register any student and to conduct any degree programme,” the court ruled.

Meanwhile, the University of Nairobi is also grappling with whether to graduate 55 engineering students who studied at Technical University of Kenya (TUK), since last year.

This is after High Court Judge Chacha Mwita last year directed the University of Nairobi to graduate the students.

They were not included in the December graduation last year and neither in the September 14 graduation this year.

GRADUATE

TUK, formerly Kenya Polytechnic, was a constituent college of UoN before it was awarded a charter in 2013.

The 55 joined the University College (TUK) in 2009 to pursue a degree in Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

In 2014, a court in Mombasa also directed Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to graduate students of Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), a former constituent college of JKUAT.

Lady Justice Mary Kasango issued the orders after finding that the petitioners were admitted as students of JKUAT at TUM, then a constituent college.

“To deny them the all-important opportunity to graduate cannot be condoned by this court. The petitioners have met the high standards required for a mandatory injunction,” the judge said.

The students moved to court seeking to compel TUM to forward their names to JKUAT for inclusion in the graduation list after the latter refused to let them graduate.

BRAND

TUM had confirmed that the petitioners were students of JKUAT who studied at its institution in Mombasa starting in 2009 and had undertaken undergraduate courses in engineering. TUM became a full-fledged university in 2013.

University of Nairobi Director of corporate affairs John Orindi said students want to graduate with the name of universities that mentored their current institutions.

“It’s a brand to have the name of, say, University of Nairobi on your certificate,” Mr Orindi said.

A senior lecturer at Moi University, Prof Okumu Bigambo, agrees with Mr Orindi, saying students like the names of established institutions since it’s easier for them to secure employment.

“Students want to belong to mother universities. New universities are still to take root,” Prof Bigambo said.

COURSES

A report by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) — a statutory body tasked with placing students — indicates that University of Nairobi, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Kenyatta are the most sought after by students.

Most of them offer elite courses preferred by most students — engineering, pharmacy, law, computer science and architecture.

A recent study by the British Council indicate that employers prefer graduates from the University of Nairobi, followed by Kenyatta and Moi, Maseno, Jomo Kenyatta, Egerton and Masinde Muliro University.