A trainee engineer at a private firm is better paid than an engineer with a doctorate at a premier Kenyan university, a study revealed yesterday. The report established that an entry-level pay for a trainee at Kenya Power is Sh140,000, as of August 2015, but an engineering lecturer with a PhD at the University of Nairobi earns Sh114,000 before tax.
The pay gap is even more glaring for entry level lecturers (tutorial fellows), who earn Sh89,259, compared to an assistant engineer at a private enterprise, who earns Sh120,000. The report – Baseline Survey of Engineering Departments 2015 – indicates universities do not pay well enough to attract teaching and research talent.
The report, prepared by the Kenya Education Network, also found out four of 10 students are studying engineering programmes that have not been accredited by the Engineering Board of Kenya. The study covers the 2014-15 academic year.
It established only six out of 12 universities offering engineering programmes have been accredited by the board. Masinde Muliro, Multimedia University of Kenya, Meru University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Kenya, Technical University of Mombasa and University of Eldoret offer unapproved courses. “Only 59 per cent of engineering students were in programmes accredited by the Engineers Board of Kenya, as of August 2015,” Prof Meoli Kashorda from the survey research team said.
Out of the 10,343 students in university, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has the largest share of engineering students – 2,844. It is followed by Technical University of Kenya with 1,765 and University of Nairobi with 1,798 students. Only 35 students are studying for PhD degrees. The report says the faculty to student ratio is low, with an average of one faculty member to 21 students. There were a total of 503 engineering full time faculty members with another 236 on part time basis.
Most of the full time members are concentrated in JKUA T, Moi and UoN. Only 193 lecturers have PhD degrees crippling the research productivity of engineering departments, Kashorda said. “There was a total of 35 PhD students in all engineering degree programmes in 2014-15 compared to the total undergraduate enrollment of 10,343 students,” it says. “Most of the PhD students’ were enrolled in four of the 12 universities.” The report also says there are 54 different undergraduate engineering programmes offered.