The Commission for University Education (CUE) has beaten a retreat from its position on unapproved degree programmes and assured members of the public, especially students, that they should not panic about the courses they are already enrolled in.
Commission CEO Prof Mwenda Ntarangwi said some universities with unapproved, but running, programmes have been directed to commit themselves in writing to have the programmes accredited even as they mount them.
According to Universities Standards and Guidelines (PROG/STD/18), he added, each programme should be supported by a minimum of two lecture rooms for a four-year programme.
He said CUE received a request from the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) in November last year to validate undergraduate programmes offered at all the local public and private universities, adding KUCCPS also asked CUE to assess capacities declared by each of the universities for placement of government-funded students for the 2019/2020 placement cycle.
“To adequately advise KUCCPS on its request, the Commission initiated a routine data collection exercise on the availability of academic resources in universities for programmes mounted in various local universities. The aim was to triangulate the data with the capacities and confirm validity of the programmes declared at the individual universities. The Commission’s decisions were based on facilities as well as programmes on offer as at August 2018,” he added in a statement.
Overall, Ntarangwi said CUE subjected 1,828 programmes to the special examination arising on the Placement Service’s request. Based on the preliminary examination, the Commission raised a few basic compliance issues with some of the programmes. The compliance issues were contained in an initial non-conclusive working document that formed the basis for further consultations with CUE and individual universities ahead of the commencement of the selection process on February 6.
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“The Commission has worked with the relevant agencies to ensure that the compliance issues raised against the majority of the programmes have been addressed. As a result, the Commission allowed the Placement Agency to admit students to the affected programmes in the 2019/2020 academic year,” he said.
Ntarangwi added the Commission has, however, delayed admission approvals for a few new programmes (where there have been no students enrolled before) in the 2019/2020 academic year, adding it will continue to work with the affected universities with a view to prepare these programmes for legibility of placement in the 2020/2021 academic year.
He said CUE is committed to working with all universities to strengthen academic programmes to ensure world class standards of training in Kenya. In particular, the Commission expects universities to ensure adequate facilities for all their programmes in line with the universities Standard and Guidelines 2014 and provide to CUE all minutes of Senate of respective mentoring universities showing clearly that there was approval for the programmes to be mounted in Constitute Colleges.
Related: List of unapproved university degree programmes
The universities will also be required to file with the CUE all their programmes that may not be accredited and stop declaring options within already approved programmes as separate degree programmes for placement of students such as splitting an already approved programme into subsets and each subset being declared as a degree programme.
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