Despite State efforts, bogus institutions continue to rise

After studying for two years to earn a business management degree from Kampala International University through its constituent college Dreamline College, Paul Otieno came to class two weeks ago to find the doors closed.

Auctioneers were hovering around and the college principal was nowhere to be seen. Two years of tuition fees and hours in the lecture halls seem to have gone down the drain.

Now, instead of attending class and finishing his degree programme, Otieno and his classmates protest every day, sitting outside the college.

It is a story being replayed across many colleges in Kenya. The education industry is poorly regulated, many colleges are unaccredited and fake colleges have sprung up as demand for higher education accelerates, driven by rising ambitions and a bulging youth population.

“We were not given any notice. We came for classes as usual and we found auctioneers demanding a Sh4 million rent debt. This college is accredited by the Commission of Higher Education, so where does this leave us?” he asks.

No problem

Contacted, the university’s country director Christopher Leting said there was nothing wrong with the college, and he wasn’t aware there were auctioneers who had closed down the college.

“Dreamline College has no problem at all. Everything is on course and we are even enrolling students for September intake,” he said.

True to his word, the college placed an advert the same week, inviting applications for degree programmes.

Education established normalcy has since returned but some students intimated they were living in fear “anything can happen next”.

“I, personally, plan to approach the administration to see whether I can get credit transfer then move to another college,” said one student on condition of anonymity.

In spite of many fake college scandals, thousands of Kenyans continue to lose hard-earned cash to unscrupulous individuals pretending to offer academic programmes.

“New colleges are mushrooming everywhere, but many are flouting norms,” said CHE Secretary Everett Standa. “Many are conducting courses that have no approval or accreditation from the Government regulators.”

Some of the colleges in Nairobi lack the capacity to offer adequate training. The lecturers are usually contracted on part time basis.

No facilities

It is not strange to find a lecturer teaching a degree course, yet the same is a degree student at the university. There are journalism schools that do not have a single camera. Most colleges have no libraries at all and if it exists, it is an empty room with a few dusty photocopied books on the shelves.

Kenya has seven public and 17 private varsities with an enrolment of about 100,000 students. Roughly 80 per cent are enrolled in public universities, while 20 per cent of the total university student population attends private universities. More than 150,000 students enrol in mid-level colleges, which offer a variety of post-secondary career courses leading to certificate, diploma and higher diploma awards.

By 1990, Kenya had about 160 mid-level colleges; by 2000 the number had increased to more than 250; and to date, there are more than 350 colleges. Interestingly, CHE has only accredited 61 colleges to offer diplomas. At university level, enrolment is estimated at only three per cent, despite the phenomenal increase in the number of universities over the last few years.

With much of the Government’s money directed toward combating rural illiteracy by boosting primary school education, the private sector has filled the gap for colleges. The education sector takes up about 30 per cent of the Government’s annual expenditure accounting for the largest share of the annual Budget.

The expenditure is distributed as follows; Primary education takes the biggest chunk of 55 per cent, followed by secondary education (27 per cent) while tertiary education takes a paltry 18 per cent, and because of that, many of Kenya’s colleges and universities — both private and public — face acute shortages of faculty, ill-equipped libraries, out-dated curricula and poor infrastructure.

Alternative facilities

Student numbers stretches Kenya’s public universities to the limit; hence there is huge unsatisfied demand for education in alternative facilities. Private universities exist but their fees are so high as to put them out of reach for the majority. A typical bachelors degree in a private university costs about Sh500,000 in tuition fees alone.

With inadequate Government funding, public universities are adopting many of the tactics of bogus colleges to survive. The result is raising enrolment with no regard to academic facilities. Lecturers are overworked as they try to maximise their income by teaching as many classes as possible.

Professor Egara Kabaji says lecturers in Kenya are overworked and underpaid.

“Fees per semester is roughly Sh60,000. Now, a degree programme has eight courses, and a lecturer should spend at least 42 hours every semester with the students. If you do your calculations, you will realise the lecturers earn less than Sh100 per hour!” Kabaji tells Education.

Since the cost of learning at a private university is exorbitant, what can Kenyans do to ensure they get the right degrees at the right colleges?

Recognised institutions

“People should learn to deal with colleges directly, especially if it is a long distance course,” says Steve Foster, an education consultant with London Centre of Management.

“Don’t be swayed by adverts, go to the college directly and find out if what they put in the advertisement is true. Kenyans should also attend colleges that offer courses examined by registered bodies like Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board (Kasneb) or Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec),” says Dr Foster.