COMMISSION FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

COMMISSION FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Quality: The Agenda P.O. Box 54999-00200 Nairobi Redhill Rd. off Limuru Rd. Gigiri Tel: + 254 (02) 7205000

Email: info@cue.or.ke Website: cue.or.ke

PRESS STATEMENT ON QUALITY AUDIT OF UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA CONDUCTED IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2017

The Commission for University Education (CUE) is mandated to assure the public and stakeholders that education offered in universities in Kenya is of good quality. In exercising this mandate, the Commission conducted a Quality Audit in all Universities in Kenya in January and February 2017. The purpose of the Quality Audit was to establish the extent to which universities were complying with the Universities Act No. 42 of 2012 and the Amendments thereto; the Universities Regulations, 2014; and the Universities Standards and Guidelines, 2014. The Education Cabinet Secretary's recent pronouncement on concerns about the quality of university education in Kenya equally informed the urgency of this exercise. The exercise was undertaken in line with the procedures spelt out in the Universities Regulations, 2014. At the end of the Audit exercise, an Exit Report was prepared and signed by the ViceChancellors in concurrence. Following this, CUE undertook an analysis of the responses and prepared an Audit Report for each university. The individual Audit Reports were presented to the respective universities during a closed door meeting with the Chancellors, Chairs of Councils and Vice Chancellors held on 16th February 2017 at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. CUE also prepared a summative report covering the general cross cutting issues, which was discussed at the meeting. The Audit revealed a number of fundamental issues which the Commission will be working with the universities to address. Some of the issues that the Commission will jointly be addressing with the universities include:

Commission will henceforth work with universities in Kenya to safeguard the tradition of such awards.

Admission Criteria The Audit report revealed that some universities were not strictly adhering to the admission criteria. For example, some students were securing entry to undergraduate programmes without adhering to the minimum entry requirements. Going forward, every university is expected to strictly adhere to the set standards and guidelines on admission criteria as provided for in the University Standards and Guidelines 2014.

Credit Transfer and Anti-plagiarism Policies The Audit exposed the unstructured application of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS). On this, the Commission has directed each university to strictly adhere to the set standards and guidelines on CATS.

The highest level of intellectual dishonesty is plagiarism. Universities should have antiplagiarism policies. The Audit observed that some of the universities did not have in place anti-plagiarism policies and systems. Going forward, the Commission will ensure that the affected universities have effective policies in place.

Missing Marks and Transcripts The Audit disclosed that in some universities, there were missing marks and transcripts at all levels. Each university will now be required to establish and implement an effective electronic student and data management system within the next six months. These records should ensure a comprehensive capture of all students' academic records in real time. From the 2017 graduation cycle, all universities will be expected to ensure that their students receive transcripts prior to graduating. Universities that fail to comply with this requirement will be sanctioned in accordance to the Law.

School-based Programmes The Audit revealed that the quality of school-based programmes offered by some universities was inadequate. The programmes did not accord adequate contact time between the learners and their lecturers as per the prescribed minimum requirements. They also do not afford learners sufficient exposure to quality degree research, library time and interaction amongst themselves.

In this regard, the Commission will begin a process of working with the affected universities to convert the school-based courses into quality programmes with sufficient opportunity for research and contact time between the learners and their lecturers. These new measures will, however, not apply to degrees already awarded under this mode of study.

Executive Degree Programme Executive degree programmes, globally, are non-academic, offered only at Masters level to people in management. The criteria for admission, in accordance with the Universities Standards and Guidelines, require a minimum entry of a Masters degree programme. The Audit noted cases of abuse of the Executive degree programmes. These included using such qualifications for admission into higher level academic programmes as well as being used as a qualification for employment as academic staff in some universities.

To this end, the Commission will be undertaking a comprehensive review of the Executive degree programmes. This will include ensuring strict adherence to the Standards and Guidelines relating to such programmes.

Honorary Degrees Sound academic and university traditions the world over support the award of honorary degrees to individuals with distinguished and outstanding personal, career or public service accomplishments. The audit revealed that this tradition has been abused by some universities, where individuals who do not possess such outstanding accomplishments have been awarded honorary degrees. In addition to ensuring that the established and laid down procedures for identifying recipients of such degrees are followed, the

Assessment and Certification of Documents Universities have a responsibility to safeguard the integrity of assessment and certification. The Audit revealed that the authenticity and validity of the process and security of academic documents, including certificates, in some universities was weak. The Commission has directed the affected universities to ensure that the process and management of certification is strictly monitored with effective controls to ensure that only authorised persons have access to certificates.

Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff Universities should have adequate teaching staff. The Audit uncovered incidents where universities were not adhering to the set ratios of full time to part-time staff as provided for in the Standards and Guidelines. In addition, the number of non-academic staff was found to be high in relation to the number of academic staff. This strains the resources allocated to the core functions of teaching and learning. In this respect, the Commission will be working with the affected universities to ensure that the ratio of full-time to parttime and that of academic to non-academic staff is rationalised. Further, the Commission has directed the universities to ensure that class sizes and staff to student ratios are within the allowable limits as provided for in the Standards and Guidelines.

Quality Assurance The Audit established that some universities have not instituted internal quality assurance policies, systems and mechanisms in line with the Universities Regulations. In this respect, the Commission has instructed that all universities establish and strengthen viable internal quality assurance structures, systems and mechanisms by 30th June 2017.

Way Forward 1. All universities have been given their individual reports and are required to respond

with any corrections of factual errors and to provide, to the Commission, a road map on corrective measures within 30 days. 2. A Joint Working Group has been constituted on quality assurance, comprising representatives of the Chancellors, Chairs of Council and Vice Chancellors from all universities, to monitor the progress of the implementation of the recommendations of the Audit report. 3. Following the substantial amendments to Universities Act 2012, the Commission will work with stakeholders to review the existing Regulations, Standards & Guidelines 2014, within the next six months, to align them with the amended Act.

PROF. CHACHA NYAIGOTTI-CHACHA CHAIRPERSON, COMMISSION FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

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