Cost of convenience in higher education

The Commission of University Education (CUE) threatened to close several campuses before the Education Cabinet Secretary intervened and extended the grace period by a year.

Students demonstrated against the higher education regulator’s directive. One student gave his main concern as the expenses of relocating to CUE-accredited campuses away from his home.

The days of travelling from our villages and hamlets to go to school in faraway places seem long gone.

Exciting stories

My friends (and a few enemies), mostly aged above 45, share exciting stories of how they crossed one part of the country to the other to go to school. One would go to primary school in Kitui and end up in Shamakhokho High School in Western Kenya. Or start school in Kisumu and end up at another school in Malindi.

When it came to university, it was almost a given that one would travel away from the village. Previously, we had the University of East Africa with campuses in Nairobi, Makerere and Dar es Salaam. Who killed this great idea?

Lots of Kenyans also studied abroad, from the US to the Soviet Union (Russia, Ukraine, and so on).

Today, that ‘inconvenience’ of going away from home is gone. You do not need to leave your village or hamlet, from kindergarten to university. The CUE threat to close some campuses was emanating from this new model of bringing services closer to the people.

Higher education entrepreneurs are not openly admitting that the model was borrowed from supermarkets. In this new model, students are supposed to suffer as little inconvenience as possible. They can operate from the comfort of their homes. That makes education affordable and accessible. Really?

What CUE did not say out loud is that this convenience is costly in the long run to students, parents and the country.

If you are keen, the new campuses are offering courses that need minimal resources — there are few satellite campuses offering engineering or medicine. That means that the graduates of such courses are likely to find it hard to get jobs because these fields are already saturated.

Of course no institution will openly tell you that the course you are taking will not easily get you a job. Potential students and their parents need to do some research.

Higher education is a seller’s market because of pent-up demand. Surprisingly less than 5 per cent of the Kenyan population holds a degree.

The greatest concern is that schooling is not just about books; after all, most textbooks contain information that is unlikely to make you competitive in the market as it is already known. Who has made money from an idea got from a textbook? Research is what makes the difference.

Studying in campuses near home gives you convenience, but denies you a chance to interact with different people who can challenge your thinking and ideas.

This lack of diversity is a threat to intellectual growth and the future well being of our economy.

The world’s leading universities are diverse and value diversity, both in faculty and student bodies. How do satellite campuses ensure there is diversity?

The graduates of these satellite campuses will live in a mixed society, and the best time to learn about diversity is when young and receptive to new ideas.

It is also universally acknowledged that most entrepreneurs are immigrants as shifting to new place opens your mind. With most of our students studying in their counties, our entrepreneurial edge is likely to be blunted.

Devolution was popular because counties would get money, not generate it. We must think long term about who will build our economy and the skills they need.

Silicon Valley would not be what it is without diverse thinkers from all over the world. Our Konza?

CUE’s demand for standards to be maintained in satellite campuses should not be politicised — it is for the good of the students, their parents and the nation.

Higher education has other stakeholders, like employers, who prefer graduates with soft skills, such as cross-cultural and global orientations.

I sympathise with students affected by the CUE directive because even if the campuses are not closed, the job market has noticed. That might mean you working harder to convince the market that you are as good as anyone else.

We have suggested that higher education in Kenya is reaching its shakeout stage. Some of the satellite campuses might close or merge, unless Kenya’s birth-rate goes up substantially.

We have forgotten that Kenya can become an education hub, attracting thousands of students from neighbouring countries. How did Uganda do it?

Names matter

Universities are competing on price, yet most students are after prestige. How will the universities, listed as 67 by CUE, compete? The supermarket model dilutes a brand. The courses taught, their marketability, research output, patents, study-abroad modules, guest speakers, visiting professors and strong alumni associations might be better weapons in competition than pricing.

Even names matter. Any brand manager will tell you not to name a university after a tribe.

Ever wondered why Harvard or Oxbridge have no satellite campuses and do not offer online courses? Higher education obeys the laws of supply and demand: the more available a qualification is, the ‘cheaper’ it becomes.

Finally, how do we streamline the exponentially growing higher education market? CUE can put its foot down and close campuses that do not meet standards, or wait for the market to sort the sector out. Either way, we should not make our students the collateral damage.

The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi School of Business. [email protected]