Four out of 10 students are undertaking degree programmes not accredited by the Engineering Board of Kenya, a study has found.
Only 6 out of 12 universities
offering the courses have been accredited by the board, found the study dubbed the
Engineering Baseline Survey.
It was carried out by the Kenya Education Network and covered the 2014/2015 academic year.
This means Masinde Muliro, Multimedia, Meru University of Science and Technology, TUK campuses in Nairobi and Mombasa and University of Eldoret are offering unapproved courses.
“Only 59 per cent of engineering students were in programmes accredited by the EBK as of August 2015,” said professor Meoli Kashorda from the survey team.
Of the 10,343 students in university, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has the largest share of engineering students (2,844).
Technical University of Kenya follows with 1,765 while the University of Nairobi has 1,798 engineering students.
The report also found that 54 different undergraduate engineering programmes are being offered.
The programmes are classified into three categories - civil and structural, electrical and electronics, and mechanical and mechatronic. The latter attracts the highest number of students.
It was noted that out of the 54 courses, 26 undergraduate engineering programmes in eight universities had not been accredited by the board by August 2015.
Kashorda said: “No student should be admitted into departments or engineering degree programmes that are not accredited by the Engineer’s Board of Kenya. Students should not be included in the application for accreditation."
He noted that it takes at least two years for an engineering graduate to get a job.
Meanwhile, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has underscored the need for universities to offer courses that meet market needs.
"For us to meet vision 2030 we need to allocate more resources to science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses to boost our economy," Matiang'i said.
He ordered
the Commission for University Education to immediately suspend approvals for satellite campuses.
“The CUE will not approve satellite campus unless necessary. There is an alarming mushrooming of government-funded universities located in the same area, offering the same courses and creating a lot of wastage," he said.
Matiang’i said some of the campuses were admitting students who have not met minimum requirements.
He also suspended approvals for borrowing for universities as they're accruing too much debt