NAIROBI, KENYA: Strathmore University has announced that it would increase enrollment of post graduate students for its Masters Program by 10 per cent of the current student population.
The University, currently with a population of 6000 students, said it was looking to grow its Masters Program in the 2015/2016 academic year by about 700 students eying a larger impact of its graduates in the African marketplace.
“We are interested, as a not-for-profit university, in ethics and quality. We are also aware that Masters graduates have a bigger impact on the economy and therefore yearn to increase the number of the Masters graduates benefiting from our academic programs this year,” said the Deputy Vice Chancellor-Academic Affair, Prof Izael Da Silva.
The enrollment increase will grow the undergraduate to graduates students ratio in the university to 80:20 with Master students’ population at above 1000.
Strathmore has some of the region’s most advanced research laboratories worth hundreds of millions of shillings, including IT and Energy Research centres at its @iLAbAfrica facility. These are funded by about ten multinationals and seven East African companies. Other centres include the Strathmore Enterprise Development Centre, the Centre for Public Policy and competitiveness, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Institute of Healthcare Management.
It has recently started to leverage these facilities in market oriented trainings at the Graduate level- including the new Masters in information system security - the only Masters level Cyber Security training in the region whose launch was witnessed by the Dr Fred Matiangi- Cabinet Secretary for Information and Communication last month; and the Masters in Mobile Telecommunication & Innovation course offered in collaboration with leading mobile network operator Safaricom at the University’s Safaricom Academy centre. “We have launched an awareness campaign through the Schools of Graduate Studies to market the various Masters program ahead of the academic year which starts in May,” said Prof Ruth Kiraka, Dean Schools of Graduate Studies.
Endowment Fund to support needy Masters Students
Strathmore is at the same time seeking to increase its sponsorship for bright but needy graduate and post graduate students in a new Endowment Fund programme likened to the one at Harvard University.
“Our Endowment Fund is now at USD 2Million. Sadly, unlike Harvard where this fund is growing every year from inheritance and donations, we have not seen a lot of people who graduate and became successful bequeathing their land, wealth and other properties to their Alma Mater or even other Universities when they pass on. This very charitable culture has helped Universities grow the Endowment Fund elsewhere, enabling them to sponsor students from all over the world including in Africa. We will be appealing to Africans and companies doing business in Africa to support our Endowment Fund program so we can support the dreams of bright but needy children- first in East Africa and then all over Africa,” said Prof Da Silva.
The Global Talent Market 2015 study by independent Swiss based research body rated students from Strathmore and Nairobi University as the most preferred graduates by the corporate job market in the region.
