How relevant is your college degree to market demands?

Your child at the university could be studying a course Kenya does not need.

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed made the chilling revelation last week and questioned why some universities continue to introduce programmes, which are not aligned to national development goals.

Ms Amina told MPs, vice chancellors of public universities, principals of constituent colleges and journalists that nearly half of students who graduate from these institutions every year are not useful to the economy.

The details emerged as an audit by the Commission for University Education (CUE) conducted in 2016 revealed that public and private universities were offering a total of 3,408 programmes. Overall, public universities had 2,752, courses, with private universities offering 655.

According to the audit, at bachelors level, there were some 1,627 programmes followed by masters with 1,162.

Doctoral level had 518 programmes and postgraduate diploma had 96.

VCs admitted that the financial crisis in university funding pushed some institutions to roll out more programmes to plug the budgetary gaps.

Amina termed as unfortunate revelations that some universities had resorted to launching several programmes to generate funds and directed the institutions management to streamline their courses.

“We must admit students that we can sustain,” said Amina. An analysis of students’ choices of programmes last year shows that some public universities attracted as few as 16 students during the first selection exercise.

Data released by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) this year showed that a total of 544 courses across the public universities attracted between zero and nine students. KUCCPS data reveals that nearly half of the full-fledged public universities failed to fill at least 50 per cent of the slots they declared.

Insufficient students

Most shocking is that even the top traditional public universities also failed to attract enough students for most of their academic programmes.

For instance, 29 of the 76 courses at Maseno University attracted less than 10 students.

A total of 17 of the 90 programmes at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology also failed to attract adequate numbers for this year’s admission.

At Kenyatta University, 16 of the 85 courses are affected, with a similar number registered at Egerton University with 54 courses. Ten of the 57 academic programmes at University of Nairobi failed to attract enough numbers.

Only Multimedia University of Kenya attracted more than 10 students across all the 23 courses it declared, followed by Technical University of Kenya (TUK). A number of universities also registered zero enrollments in many academic programmes they declared.

For instance, University of Eldoret that declared a total capacity of 3,870 only attracted 1, 735 leaving some 2,135 vacant slots. Some 16 of the university’s programmes did not attract a single student.

Another 11 programmes managed less than 10 students, some of these getting one of three students per course.

And Taita Taveta, which declared a total capacity of 2,405 slots in 17 academic programmes had four of its courses attracting no students at all.

The university only attracted 518 students in total, leaving a deficit of 1,887 unfilled slots.

The nature of programmes offered in various universities is largely determined by the nature of the institutions establishment, market forces, availability of resources, controls by professional bodies, availability and adequate space, facilities and teaching staff.

During this year’s admissions, public and private universities declared a combined capacity of 160,000.

Yet the total number of students who scored the minimum university entry grade of C+ and above were only 69,000.

Amina questioned why universities continue to declare huge capacities even as financial status continue to dwindle.

Priority programmes

However, the VCs said funding to universities does not specify priority programmes budgeted for by the State.

Details from CUE reveal that most public and private universities have duplicated a number of courses and hired more staff, pushing the institutions to perennial deficits.

Universities Funding Board (UFB) has said the growing complaint of underfunding would be resolved if universities rationalised academic programmes and hired the right number of staff.

“We must re-look internally and assess the programmes universities offer as a way of funding,” said Milton Njuki, UFB Chief Executive Officer. Njuki said the board is concerned by the high rate of programmes duplicated in institutions with minimal window left for specialisation.

“Why is everyone offering bachelor of education, for instance, yet there are many other critical areas that the government has prioritised?” he asked.

Amina said the universities have rolled out several programmes yet only half of them have jobs ready in the market.

Njuki said duplication of programmes means duplication of funding and injecting of more resources that increase the cost of teaching.

“It will not be business as usual,” warned Njuki.