New Kenyan universities set for failure, warns firm

By Moses Michira

Tens of newly established universities are set for failure owing to their structural weaknesses and a poor curriculum, an international advisory institution is now warning.

Their failure is imminent because its graduates would find it impossible to enter the job market, which will consequently discourage prospective students from enrolling for their courses.

Jerome Morrissey, chief executive officer of Nairobi-based organisation called Gesci, has said that the institutions of higher learning were unsustainable because of their poor academic programmes offering.

“These institutions would gradually fall along the way because they cannot be the first choice for students when none of its graduates are getting employed,” said Mr Morrissey on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony for students of Dublin City University.

External evaluation

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The biggest weaknesses in the institutions was lack of external evaluation and peer reviews, which exposed their programmes to irrelevance in the job market while its methods and content would mostly be out of touch with current industry needs.

Morrisey was referring to the dozens of new universities that have been established in the past decade, most having been started by faith-based organisations whose cumulative enrolment is about half of all freshmen pursuing undergraduate courses.

Lack of external evaluation also means that graduates from such universities risk being denied opportunities for further education in other countries that observe minimum standards through continuous evaluation.

Private sector employers in Kenya have also raised the red flag over the quality of graduates that local universities are churning out, cautioning that the institutions need to integrate industry needs in their curriculum.

Already, the university education regulator in Kenya has unearthed major flaws in several institutions in a confidential report, which could spell doom for millions of students and their graduates.

In the graduation held on Friday, more than 130 workers from 12 African countries were graduating with diplomas awarded by the Irish University as part of an initiative of the African Union to equip public sector employees with leadership skills in ICT.