Mr. President, disband Commission for University Education (CUE) asap!

Dear Mr. President, please consider disbanding commission for University Education (CUE) with immediate effect. This comes amid protest of private varsities push for “regular” students. CUE has completely neglected the spirit and letter of Universities ACT 2012. While the ACT envisions a high level of professionalism in higher education, CUE has demonstrated the exact opposite.

University in Kenya since 2012 has deteriorated completely to the extent that having a degree in Kenya has become like taking a soda in a road side kiosk. Quality has been neglected by CUE and instead, they have introduced unwarranted and unconstitutional financial laws and policies that are seriously hurting Universities. Their failure to reign on errant practices of improper propagation of University Education in Kenya is a clear evidence of their ineptness. Private Universities and other stakeholders see this as a deliberate move to derail progressive growth of higher education in Kenya.

CUE leadership is highly wanting: How can its Chairman Prof. Henry Thairu justify the over 400% increment of accreditation cost without his proper consultation with stakeholders? The Kenya Association of Private Universities (KAPU) has questioned CUE’s ability to effect unwarranted provisions without its being consulted.

Effective this year (2016), CUE demands from each University Ksh 640,000 from Ksh 160,000 to accredit one program?  Worse still, Ksh 640,000 will be charged for every program they audit? Institutional accreditation visit that lasts a maximum of 2 days will cost each university Ksh 1.8 million up from Ksh 600,000 while accreditation of one extension campus, which was free, will now attract Ksh 300,000. CUE has also introduced a fee to every student in the disguise of quality assurance. Every student will be charged between Ksh 1,000 – 2,000 for being a member of an institution. These monies will be paid directly by respective university to the Commission. This is very unfair and retrogressive. This is ridiculous! It is very unfair for any government agency to muzzle its powers without proper consultation with its stakeholders. CUE has blatantly refused to consult private and public universities vice chancellors and proprietors in such major decisions that will definitely affect quality of higher education in Kenya. Experts in higher education in Kenya has warned that the increased charges will lead to increase in schools fees which is against the objective of student’s access and equity as stated in the Ministry of Education Sessional Paper 14, 2012.

It’s seriously understaffed: How can 50 staffs at CUE manage over 66 Universities in Kenya with over 200,000 students and 10,000 staffs? CUE has demonstrated its ineptness by conducting very unprofessional program audit and accreditation. This has slowed down the expansion of market edged programs in Kenyan Universities.  This has been seen also in their haphazardness in demanding for closure of some very credible private and government Universities in Kenya in disguise of their proximity to their premises in the Central Business Disrict. The unstaffed commission has also demonstrated their incompetence in the inspection and accreditation of University programs in Kenya.

We call upon the president and the parliament to disband Commission for University Education (CUE) with immediate effect. It’s a commission full of unprofessionalism, greed and corruption hence mutilating the quality of education it’s meant to safeguard.

Dr. Njenga, Solomon

Senior Lecturer and Chairman

School of Governance, Peace and Security

Africa Nazarene University

0723371056

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