Universities warn of skills mismatch

TVET Principal Secretary Dr Esther Mworia present best Sports personality award to Judith Cherono during the Nairobi National Polytechnic graduation on September 18, 2026. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya’s universities are producing increasingly large numbers of graduates, but the concentration of students and graduates in education, arts and social sciences.

This continue to raise concerns over whether the country’s higher education system is producing the mix of skills required by a changing economy.

The University Statistics Report 2025 identifies a significant imbalance in programme enrolment, with education, arts and social sciences attracting large numbers of students while STEM, engineering and agriculture remain comparatively under-enrolled.

The Commission for University Education warns that the trend could create a mismatch between graduate output and labour-market needs, potentially resulting in oversupply in some fields alongside shortages of skills considered critical to the economy.

The scale of concentration is evident in student numbers where  Education Arts had 132,039 students in 2025, making it the largest programme domain.

Business followed with 103,742, while Education Science accounted for 61,369 students. Social sciences had 31,818 students and arts 28,856.

By comparison, engineering had 31,245 students, agriculture 23,245, Information and Computer Technology 22,401 and Computer Science 19,706.

The report shows that 124,912 students graduated in 2025, compared with 123,928 in 2024. Education remained the dominant field, producing 37,817 graduates, equivalent to 30.3 per cent of the total, up from 34,156 or 27.6 per cent in 2024.

The three education sub-domains collectively accounted for 34.6 per cent of all graduates in 2025.

At the same time, some science disciplines recorded declines. Physical and related sciences fell by 1,061 graduates, Mathematics and Statistics by 454, while Humanities declined by 477 and Biological and Related Sciences by 375.

The report says these changes resulted in a concentrated loss of more than 2,300 science and mathematics graduates in one year. It also notes that Computer Science and Networking recorded growth but produced a combined 3,834 graduates.

The report links the growing education output partly to persistent public-sector demand for teachers, while growth in arts, administration and social sciences is associated with expansion of private chartered universities, which tend to concentrate in lower-capital disciplines.

It warns that the continuing shift away from science and engineering could leave the graduate pipeline out of alignment with national development priorities.

However, the report does not provide independent employer or graduate-tracer evidence to establish the actual scale of unemployment or skills shortages.

It specifically acknowledges that its reliance on UEMIS means the findings cannot be triangulated against employer surveys, graduate tracer studies or national examinations data.

The report therefore recommends a rethink of how students are guided into university programmes.

Among its recommendations are stronger career guidance in secondary schools and universities, increased internships and industry partnerships, practical learning components and targeted scholarships, subsidies or other incentives for under-enrolled but nationally critical disciplines.

It also recommends regulating admissions in oversubscribed programmes such as education and the arts to prevent graduate oversupply.

Female students remain strongly represented in education, humanities and social sciences, while men dominate engineering, computing and other technical disciplines.

The report recommends mentorship, scholarships and career guidance to encourage greater female participation in STEM and technical fields.