Higher Education System in Kenya
The number of youth in Kenya represents 67% of its entire population. They all have the age to attend school from primary school to college and university. To satisfy the educational needs for this population, Kenya decided to expand learning at all level of education system. After Kenya’s independence, the number of professional workers was very limited due to the colonial strategy that aimed to use the Africans as manual force for European countries and limit them to vocational education.
In 1922, Kenya was introduced to its first higher education institution named Makerere University under the British colonialism but, it was not until I1949 that the institution was recognized as a full-fledge university. Before that, it was considered as a technical college to prepare the East Africans to gain manual skills. After the independence of Kenya, the university was divided into three national universities. During that period, the number of professional workers was very limited due to the colonial strategy that aimed to use the African youth only for manual labor force; the Africans were not allowed to receive education that would develop their intellectual capabilities that encourages self-sustaining socio-political and scientific development.
After its independence in 1963, Kenya witnessed a huge number of the graduation in secondary education, and its public university became unable to welcome all these students. In addition to the limited opportunities in public higher education, Kenya’s state-funded university was unable to meet the rising demand of student enrollment as well. Consequently, the number of private universities started rising. However, this rise is not fast enough to keep up the pace of enrollment, forcing about 5000 students go study outside of Kenya every year.
Today Kenya has only 8 public but 17 private universities. The private universities are considered better than public universities even though there were some reservations as to the value of degrees attained from private universities in their earlier days. Today, however, Kenyans consider the private universities as a blessing and even the students who are qualified to attend the public universities tend to choose the private ones due to the quality of education given there.
In terms of financing for their education, more than $192 million is spent annually by Kenyan to study abroad. The main destinations of these students are the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Many foreign countries advertise for their universities in Kenya to attract perspective students. The demand for a better education and the willingness to pay to go abroad to attain it makes the provision of higher education in Kenya an international business venture for foreign universities and, by the same token, decreases the demand for local public and private universities’ enrollment. This creates a competition for both pubic and private universities.
Private and public universities are competing locally as well. This was expected with the expansion of the self-funded universities. It is true that public universities are more advanced that the private ones but both sectors share the same challenges including the lack of resources. Another issue with the private university is that to generate revenue, they accept most of the students, even the ones who are not qualified to attend public higher education. The increase in unemployment for graduate students in both public and private universities brings to light questions about the relevance of these universities.
Currently there are 80,000 students enrolled in both public and private sectors. 40,000 are enrolled in public universities. 30,000 are privately sponsored in public universities, and 10,000 attend private universities. The private universities in Kenya are self-financed by the student’s tuition fees and auxiliary enterprises, donation, grants and alumni. Kenya also introduced virtual universities where online degrees are given from the United States and Australian universities.
The lack of resources in both public and private universities in Kenya due to the poor economic condition of the country is the main cause for the phenomenon known as the Brain Drain. The number of PhD students has decreased during the last years, this is due to the lack of the opportunities and scholarship in both public and private institutions. As a result, most of the Kenyan scholars have migrated to developed countries like England, United States, Canada and Australia. Unfortunately, teaching in both public and private education sectors in limited to lecturing and theories due to the lack of resources such science laboratories, libraries etc.
The number of students in private and public universities is increasing every year but the government needs to find solutions for the graduate students who are unemployed even after graduating with PhDs. This is mainly due to the low entry points required to boost the university access. The country’s minimum grade to enter a public university in a C+. The access to private university remain very relaxed to attract students for commercial goals.
Sources
Charles K. Ngome Kenyatta University, Kenya
KENYA: Entry points lowered to boost access/Dave Buchere16 August 2009 Issue No:35/http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090813170055514
Education and Colonialism in Kenya GEORGE E.URCH page 249 of pages 249-264
KENYA: Private university growth a mixed blessing
Stephen Ndegwa*13 April 2008 Issue No:23