Commercialisation has watered down university education

There is a need to reclaim and strengthen the tertiary colleges to continue offering the technical and practical skills they were meant for. [Istockphoto]

I was a university student when the then-president announced the introduction of parallel degrees. These were meant for self-sponsored students or people who were already working and wanted to acquire a degree. This would come with lowered cut points for entry. The announcement brought an uproar among university students then. We decried the possible negative impact the move would have on the quality of education, from diluting the quality of degree certificates to stretching the already stretched infrastructure and facilities in public universities. We called for a review of the decision but, of course, it ended with a few tear gas canisters and hours of running between the police and students. Then all went quiet on this issue.

In the next few years, public universities were flooded with parallel students. When the public universities broke their banks and could no longer hold more students, came in the private universities. Any space that could hold a university was turned into one. Buildings in Nairobi and other towns were quickly converted to either stand-alone universities or university campuses to hold the huge number of students. In the rush to make even more money from the newly discovered gold, all tertiary colleges, which previously offered diplomas in technical skills, were turned into universities. Kenya and Mombasa polytechnics, among others, were quickly upgraded to universities.