Punish varsities over unaccredited courses

Universities that are still admitting students to pursue unaccredited courses should be harshly dealt with.

Masinde Muliro University management is to be held responsible for the fate that befell students pursuing engineering courses.

The Engineering Board of Kenya declared that it did not recognise engineering courses offered in the institution.

Before the Universities Act (2012) which gave the Commission for University Education (CUE) and Engineering Board Kenya (EBK) powers to approve and accredit programmes, university senates approved their own courses to be offered. This is how most public universities began offering engineering courses despite few qualified lecturers.

The matter was worsened by the rapid expansion of universities which made EBK to intervene in order to maintain professional standards.

By 2014,  only four public universities – Nairobi, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta and Egerton – were cleared to offer some courses in engineering.

Disciplinary actions should be taken against universities that are still admitting students for unaccredited engineering courses.