The ‘lollipop’ degree courses and shame of Kenya university education

An empty university lecture hall following the ongoing lecturers' strike. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Though belated, it was consoling to get news reports that the Commission for University Education (CUE) had finally crawled out of slumber by promising to act on duplication of degree programmes across universities.

Unfortunately, the move seems only to scratch the surface of a more serious problem. If the focus will not be on intra-university duplication -- and the mushrooming of what I term ‘lollipop’ degreeprogrammes, the intent of CUE at tackling duplication of degree programmes will fail miserably. In all bluntness, the duplication of degree programmes has reached pornographic proportions. As a result, we now have a riotously unrestrained roll-out of ‘lollipop’ degree programmes which are undermining the very essence of higher education.