Public universities outshine Strathmore, USIU, MKU

The University of Nairobi, as you know by now, is the top institution of higher learning in East and Central Africa according the 2014 global standings by the respected Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.

The university whose motto is ‘Unitate et Labore’ (In Unity and Work) also sashayed to position nine to perch among the cream of Africa’s top 10 best up from 17th in 2012.

It is interesting to note that while private schools in Kenya outsmart public ones in the KCSE exams, it’s the other way round in higher learning. Public universities confer far much better ‘Power to read and do all that appertains to this degree’ than private universities.

Of 20,000 universities ranked worldwide this August, UoN (where former Finance Minister David Mwiraria, a Statistics major, was its first Masters graduate in ‘64), was ranked 907.

Strathmore University, on the other hand, is sixth locally and position 3,850 worldwide, while USIU is number 9,847 globally!

Webometrics has been ranking universities twice annually since 2004. Researchers at Cybermetrics Lab in the Spanish National Research Council where the ranking is done employs ‘link analysis’ to evaluate an institution’s quality of education using, “correct, comprehensive, deep evaluation of the universities global performance, its activities, outputs, their relevance and impact.”

This is achieved via assessing the impact of a university’s quality of academic content, accessibility of research papers globally, and the number of academic papers published in respected international journals.

So, why do public universities outshine private ones in Kenya?

Well, Dr Francis Kerre, a sociology lecturer at Kenyatta University reckons the poor showing by private universities is not a surprise, but a serious problem.

“The initial objective of establishing private universities was to make money and they operated like kiosks for a very long time,” offers Dr Kerre, adding that because of this “kiosk-mentality” they get to lecture, but not teach, resulting in low standards, and bottom-of-the-barrel graduates.

“We see these differences when students are defending their thesis, even though some institutions like Strathmore, USIU and Daystar are beginning to appreciate standards,” says Dr Kerre.

In clarifying the magnitude and impact of this dire situation the Don says: “Many lecturers complain that some graduates from private colleges do not understand the basic content of a proposal when they enroll for MAs and MBAs.” Unlike public universities with defined courses, he notes, private universities look for courses that attract numbers and bring money.

“Do you see any private university venture into technical courses or even veterinary medicine?” poses Dr Kerre, while suggesting that private institutions should have basic courses, like statistics, research, and sociology, to lay the foundation of students while in first year.

Something else: “Qualified professors teach first years,” adds Dr Kerre, “In public universities, you find senior professors laying the foundation of first years, which does not happen in private institutions.”