5,000 students to miss engineering courses

Graduands during University of Nairobi ( UoN) 52nd graduation ceremony at the university's main campus. Over seven thousands students were conferred with degrees and diplomas. PHOTO: DAVID NJAAGA.

Engineering Board of Kenya (EBK) has cautioned the universities placement agency against admitting students to unaccredited programmes during this year’s intake.

The communication was made during a meeting between the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) and EBK last week.

“We told them (KUCCPS) our stand and it is upon them now. It is not the first time we are telling them this because it is not fair to students,” said EBK Registrar Nicholas Musuni.

This means nearly 5,000 students who applied to study engineering courses in public universities will be locked out of the programme during this year’s admission.

He said last week’s meeting also discussed the entry requirement and admission criteria. “We told them our expectations on criteria of admission and the meeting was good because they appreciated the requirements,” said Mr Musuni.

The firm stand by EBK on admissions supports finding of a new audit report released last week by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.

The Baseline Survey of Engineering Students 2015 revealed that some 12 public universities currently offer various engineering programmes but noted that only half of these universities have accredited programmes.

The report produced by Kenya Education Network (Kenet), grouped the engineering programmes into three – civil and structuring, electrical and electronic, and mechanical and mechatronics engineering.

Only programmes at Dedan Kimathi University, Egerton University, Kenyatta University, Moi University, University of Nairobi and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been accredited. Those listed as having programmes not accredited are Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Meru University of Science and Technology, Multimedia university, Technical university of Kenya, Technical University of Mombasa and University of Eldoret.

“The audit revealed that there are some 10,343 engineering students in the 12 public universities. However, 6,131 students were enrolled in EBK accredited programmes,” reads the report. This means more than 4,200 students in the six public universities are not enrolled in accredited programmes by EBK.

It also means with the revised capacities in universities for this year’s admissions, about 5,000 students who sat last year’s KCSE will not be placed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).

“The study recommends that no student should be admitted into departments or engineering programmes that are not accredited by EBK. Students should not be included in application for accreditation,” reads the report.

Speaking after the launch of the report, Dr Matiang’i said his ministry will push for a harmonised admission process.

“We need professional bodies, Commission for University Education (CUE), and the KUCCPS to work together. They must agree among themselves so that no student is hurt,” said Matiang’i.

He challenged universities to justify introduction of new courses, urging each to stick to their line of specialisation.

The report finds that there are some 44 engineering departments across offering 54 different engineering degree programmes. “There are about 503 engineering faculty members. Of these, 193 are PhD holders. The faculty members are adequate with an average faculty student ratio of just 20,” reads the report.

Kenet Lead Researcher, Moeli Kashorda, however raised an alarm over the huge number of part-time lecturers that he said stands at 236 but noted that staffing levels are adequate if well utilised. It also emerged that even with 193 PhD holders under the engineering faculties, research was still very low.

“Medicine is the leading discipline in Kenya based on publication counts and has a field weighted citation of 103 per cent more than the world average. The citation impact of engineering and computer science is bellow three per cent,” reads the report.

Kashorda said between 2012 and 2015, medicine had some 5,148 publications against 339 of engineering and only 32 of Computer Science.