CS George Magoha orders universities to stop opening satellite campuses

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has ordered universities to stop establishing satellite campuses.

Prof Magoha was speaking during the opening of the regional forum on university education reforms organized by the government and World Bank.

The move, which takes immediate effect, is meant to ensure that the quality of education is not compromised.

“The quality of PhDs is depreciating. Even the Masters degree is useless. It's about time, we stopped talking about numbers, let’s have only quality graduates,” said Prof Magoha.

Crackdown

In 2018, the government, through the Ministry of Education and the Commission of University Education (CUE), closed down some 57 campuses after they failed to meet accreditation requirements.

Laikipia had six of its campuses closed, a move that affected thousands of its students. Some of the students had to be transferred to the main campus, further constraining the already strained infrastructure. The six are Eldoret, Naivasha, Nakuru, Nyahururu, Embu and Upper Hill in Nairobi.

Moi University had four of its campuses closed in Kericho, Mombasa and Nakuru.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya Methodist University, Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) and University of Baraton each had two of their campuses closed.

JKUAT had Westlands in Nairobi and Kisumu campuses closed, while Methodist had Nakuru and Nyeri campuses shut.

The Catholic-run CUEA had its Kisumu and Nairobi CBD campuses closed.

Eldoret and Nairobi campuses belonging to Baraton were shut down.

Others that lost one campus each are Cooperative (Meru), Kabarak (Nairobi) and South Eastern Kenya University (Nairobi).