Foreign degrees must match local standards, Matiang'i warns

Students at East African universities may not be employed locally if the foreign education system does not match Kenyan standards.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i Monday said it would be useless of Kenyans to seek education in countries that will not match local thresholds.

Plans underway

Dr Matiang'i said plans were underway to ensure higher education standards are raised and maintained across East African countries.

"As you are aware, Tanzania did an audit and 16 universities were closed down. Rwanda also just did an audit and five universities were shut. We just did our audit and we shall go to any lengths to ensure standards are maintained," said Matiang'i.

"We hope Uganda will follow suit because it would be useless for Kenyans to study there and get useless degrees that will not be beneficial to them. We are not going to let anyone bring mediocre papers in our countries, they will keep it within their borders," he said.

He said a meeting of Inter-University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) had been scheduled for next month to, among other issues, review higher education structure including credit transfer.

"And we shall be very firm and direct with them that we must stick to the standards. We will not accept and recognise certificates that come from those countries," said Matiang'i.

Matiang'i spoke yesterday as he unveiled a 10-point plan for reforming the higher education sector with firm instructions to councils of the institutions.

To start with, the CS said governance structures must be strengthened across all universities and warned of breeding conflicts of interest.

He asked the new councils to get specific Council of University Education (CUE) audit reports for their universities and address issues of admission thresholds, missing marks and transcripts, credits transfers, few hours, plagiarism, security of academic documents and internal quality assurance.

"The concerns raised on the quality of university education in Kenya are a true reflection of either poor governance structure or lack of knowledge, skills, attitudes and experience among the members of the university councils," said Matiang'i.

"There is an urgent need to redeem the reputation of university education in Kenya. University councils must actively take up their roles and ensure that quality is maintained and enhanced," he said.

He said issues of missing marks must never recur.

Meanwhile, the ministry has raised concern over drug lords and cartels who are running drug businesses in public universities.

The ministry has attributed the increase in the number of indiscipline cases in the learning institutions to the drugs that are now being used openly.

Matiang'i yesterday said the issue was of concern and was a threat to national security.

The CS pointed out Maseno University where such cases have lately been reported and called for full investigations.

He directed Vice Chancellors of all public universities to institute integrated learning systems to closely monitor their students.

"I have directed, through CUE, for full investigations in such cases especially at Maseno where cases of students fighting in their hostels are rampant," he said.

At the same time, the CS called on the councils to be vigilant on a new form of litigation brought about by conflicts among the leadership of the institutions.