What education reforms mean for universities, students

In January, fresh from overhauling the systems in primary and secondary school education, Education CS Fred Matiang’i turned his attention to universities.

Standards of university education have been on a free fall —for a long time — an opinion shared by many Kenyans and referred to repeatedly by the Cabinet Secretary. In his letter to the Council for University education, he highlighted the quality of degree programmes, the admission criteria for universities and qualification of students as key areas that needed to be looked into. Subsequently, Matiang’i promised reforms that would be ‘painful and difficult to accept’.