Kenya has enacted higher education reforms aimed at streamlining and improving the management of university affairs. The Universities Act 2012, finally signed into law by President Mwai Kibaki this month, introduces far-reaching changes.
Mount Kenya University deputy vice chancellor Evans Kerosi said the move will increase the number of students in private universities to be admitted through a joint admission board.
Private Universities in Kenya receive no funding from the government for running expenses. They rely on tuition fees to meet recurrent and developmental costs.
The Tanzania Commission for Universities, or TCU, has finally acted against a branch campus of Uganda’s Kampala International University, ordering the Dar es Salaam-based institution to stop offering masters and doctoral courses.
However, the Kenya Association of Private Universities (Kapu) expressed concerns that by implementing the unit costing in public universities, fees charged in their institutions would be affected because of the forces of a free-market.
Students in private universities taking courses not approved by the Commission for University Education (CUE) have recently learnt, to their utter dismay, that they cannot get help from the campuses to resolve the problem, because CUE’s bark is louder than its bite.
Despite growing by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years and expanding higher education access to thousands of needy learners, private universities in Kenya continue to shun science, technology, engineering and mathematics – STEM – courses, leaving the heavy financial and infrastructural burdens of these subjects to poorly funded public institutions.
Competition for students among private universities in Kenya is intensifying, with institutions taking to both the electronic and print media to advertise programmes and display achievements. The private higher education sector is thriving, and now enrols 20% of all students.