Globally, academic qualifications are held in high esteem. As such, they are viewed as the dependable and trusted proxy for knowledge, competencies and skills of the holders. In view of this, the higher education sector in Kenya has been making all efforts to produce authentic and highly qualified graduates and scholars who can assist in spearheading socio-economic development in the country.
However, in recent times, news reports suggest that these concerted efforts by higher learning education agencies in conjunction with the government are being undermined by the proliferation of sub-standard, bogus, forged, unaccredited and other invalid and fraudulently acquired academic and professional awards.
These higher learning institutions have also been offering programmes that are shallow in scope and unmarketable. Driven by fishiness and unscrupulous motives, they have been minting millions from innocent students who are oblivious of what is happening.
Furthermore, there have been numerous cases of unregulated and unauthorised programmes in various higher learning institutions. Latest account of this involved thousands of students at both private and public universities who were pursuing 26 engineering programmes that have not been accredited.
The case was revealed by the Engineers Board of Kenya. Margaret Ogai, the EBK Regisrar noted that, "It is a waste of resources for the parents and students taking unaccredited courses and such waste affects our countries economy negatively."
These engineering programmes are being pursued in the most notable universities in Kenya such as the University of Nairobi, Jkuat, Egerton University and Kenyatta University. Additionally, in 2019, it was revealed thousands of students were wasting time and money studying useless degree programmes.
This was after the Commission for University Education rejected 133 courses with a cumulative enrollment capacity of 10, 000 slots. CUE is a board that regulates all university programmes. Disturbingly, there were students already studying those programmes and they were either forced to discontinue their studies due to mistakes of their not own making.
There is a need for effective means of cross-checking not just the reliability of academic work within an institution and its national or regional education context but also its standards and practices in comparison to acceptable global standards.
In order to clear this mess, more needs to be done than just scrapping them.
As the war continues, each institution should work hard towards abiding by the rules and regulations set by the CUE. We need individuals who will transform our society positively.
