By WAINAINA NDUNG’U
The government hopes to double the number of students admitted to regular university courses.
Higher Education Minister, Prof Margaret Kamar said the vision would be achieved with planned elevation of three university colleges to fully-fledged status this year.
There will also be expansion of seven more university colleges, which would eventually be upgraded.
“Even with the newly established colleges, we are still only able to admit 10 percent of students who achieve the minimum Joint Admissions Board (JAB) grades but we are hopeful colleges’ elevation and expansion will create more places to double the numbers,” said the minister.
Prof Kamar who spoke after opening a water laboratory at the Kimathi University College of Technology (KUCT) in Nyeri named the universities expecting a charter before the end of the year as KUCT, the Kenya Polytechnic University College and the Mombasa Polytechnic.
technical courses
Prof Kamar said Kenya with 6,000 graduate engineers still faced a huge engineers’ shortage and would need to increase that figure to at least 30,000 by 2030.
The minister however said even with the planned elevation, the universities colleges are expected to retain their traditional technical and vocation courses for training of crucial middle level staff.
“Each engineer requires at least four technologists working under him while each technologist required at least four technicians to run the systems,” said the minister.
Prof Kamar said the ministry would soon roll out a new system of funding university education in which universities would get funding as per the cost of their academic programmes.
“A vice chancellors’ committee is already working out the details to enable us allocate more funds to courses which can give this country an economic take off,” said the minister.
She said Kimathi University had been chosen to pioneer Medical Engineering Courses in the country because it was seen as a premier technology institute.
She challenged the university to not only teach the course but to be an innovation centre for medical engineering products which Kenya was spending a fortune to import.
Prof Kamar also said the ministry will continue closing down bogus middle level colleges.
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