We want our engineers and leaders back.No mercy ENGINEERING COURSES IN KENYA PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES SUSPENDED OVER QUALITY-MOI CLEARED. Three public universities have been forced to recruit lecturers from foreign countries to meet fresh quality demands by the Engineers Board of Kenya. The board is dissatisfied with the quality of graduates from public institutions and this has prompted it to suspend nearly all engineering programmes in 22 public universities and their colleges until certain specifications are met. The move has thrown into jeopardy the careers of thousands of students pursuing the courses. Kenyatta University (KU), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and the Technical University of Mombasa are some of the institutions currently hiring engineering lecturers from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India, Korea and China, university administrators told the Nation . There are 8,700 trained engineers in Kenya at the moment, according to the EBK. Out of this, only 2,000 have been licensed to practise. The ministry of Education said it was in talks with the board to determine the fate of thousands of students pursuing engineering courses that have not been approved. For engineers to practice in Kenya, they must be graduates of a university approved by the board and must have worked under a competent engineering firm for at least three years. They are then registered and given a certificate to practise. REPEAT But Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has indicated that students who have already completed their courses and are due to graduate would not be forced to repeat their degree programmes. “We will meet with EBK to deliberate on the way forward and allow the students to graduate. We expect to reach an agreement this week,” said Prof Kaimenyi. The recent spate of student unrest that led to the closure of some universities has been attributed to anxiety over the uncertainty surrounding the suspension of the engineering programmes. EBK Registrar Nicholas Mulinge said the universities had not hired qualified personnel to teach engineering. “We asked them to hire what we call ‘thematic leaders’, who are professionals with depth of both experience and qualification in specific areas to head their programmes, but they have failed,” Mr Mulinge lamented. Vice-chancellors and the EBK would meet this week to determine the next move for KU, JKUAT, Egerton University, Technical University of Mombasa, Maseno University and all colleges offering engineering courses. RAPID EXPANSION Only one engineering course — Environment and Bio-Systems — at the University of Nairobi is yet to be cleared by the EBK, out of six courses that the institution offers. “The problem started when university senates approved courses without regard to professional (regulations) because the universities were autonomous entities,” said Mr Mulinge. However, universities lost their autonomy with the coming into force of the Universities Act (2012), which gave the Commission for University Education and professional groups such as the EBK powers to approve and accredit programmes. Previously, the senates approved all degree courses the institutions offered after their faculties developed programmes. This is how most public universities started engineering courses even without enough lecturers or qualified ones. “The matter has been worsened by the rapid expansion of universities, with their constituent colleges fast becoming full universities even without the necessary staff and equipment. This is what has forced EBK to weigh in in a bid to ensure professionalism,” said Mr Mulinge. PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES The Engineers Act (2011) mandates the board to approve and accredit engineering programmes in public and private universities and other tertiary educational institutions. Only four public universities — Nairobi, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta and Egerton — have been cleared to offer courses in engineering, even though some courses are yet to be approved. At the UoN, only five courses, including Civil, Agricultural, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics engineering will be offered. Moi will offer 13 engineering courses, including Electrical and Communication, Civil and Structural, Textile, Chemical and Process, and Production Engineering. At Jomo Kenyatta, Mechanical, Agricultural, Civil, Electrical and Electronics, Mechatronic, Agricultural and Bio-Systems Engineering are approved. Agricultural Engineering is the only course that has been approved at Egerton University. University of Nairobi Vice- Chancellor George Magoha supported the regulation on institutions by the board and said there was a need to streamline the engineering sector to meet international standards. BEYOND BOARD DEMANDS He said his university was working closely with the board to ensure that the Environmental and Bio- Systems Engineering course — which is yet to be approved — meets the specifics of the board.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 11:53:44 +0000
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