Universities to renew course approvals every 6 years
Universities to renew course approvals every 6 years
Universities to renew course approvals every 6 years
If a Ministry of Education plan is approved, universities may soon have to reapply for permission to teach academic programs every six years.University officials, however, are objecting to the hefty costs these agencies are charging for clearance, which has caused controversy surrounding this idea. The Vice Chancellors’ Committee claims that fees are being demanded by at least thirty separate agencies in order to approve academic programs.
Now that their individual curriculum have been authorized by university senates, the vice-chancellors want the Commission for University Education (CUE) to be the only organization in charge of quality control.
Currently, CUE and other professional groups approve university courses; however, this is a one-time process. The venture capitalists contend that professional body accreditation amounts to a doubling of duties.
The committee chairman, Daniel Mugendi, stated, “Entrench in law that the only accrediting and quality control body of academic programs should only be CUE after the university senates have passed the curricula.”
During a meeting with stakeholders to discuss the reform of rules governing the sector, Prof. Mugendi gave a speech.
He termed the fees demanded by regulatory agencies as “tremendous stress” on university finances.“The regulating bodies/agencies are charging multiple and exorbitant fees to do the traditional role of university senate in curriculum development and delivery,” Mugendi said.
Universities currently pay Sh320,000 to CUE for each program’s certification, and Sh1,000 for each student’s quality assurance.The universities additionally give CUE Sh900,000 for a quality audit. According to The Standard, universities must pay the Council of Legal Education (CLE) up to Sh1.6 million in order for the law program to be approved.
To teach a nursing course, the Nursing Officers Council of Kenya (NOCK) charges Sh500,000 for accreditation while Clinical Officers Council (COC) charges Sh420,000.The Board of Architecture and Quantity Surveyors charges Sh1.2 million while the Engineers Board of Kenya charges Sh300,000 for programme accreditation.
According to Mugendi, a lot of universities are avoiding offering academic programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics because of the hefty costs. He clarified that additional fees render the programs unfeasible because they are the most expensive to run in terms of space, equipment, and faculty ratio requirements.
According to him, the effect of the fees has resulted in university academic programs being duplicated, mostly in the humanities as they are less expensive.
According to the Vice Chancellors Committee’s presentation, “it is becoming more difficult for universities to align their core mandate of training, research, and innovation to the national agenda in the current circumstances.”
In the past, degrees from students at certain universities that did not meet their standards were not recognized by some professional groups.
In 2020 for example, the Engineering Board of Kenya released a list of universities it recognises as training schools for engineering.
Despite offering engineering programs, this did not include Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Meru University, South Eastern Kenya University, Technical University of Kenya, and the University of Eldoret.
2011 saw the Engineers Registration Board reject engineering degrees from Masinde Muliro, Kenyatta, and Egerton universities. Several public and private university law graduates have suffered a similar fate after their papers were rejected by the Council of Legal Education.
