At least 1,000 graduates will be trained
up to doctorate level every year to provide a pool of high-level
lecturers for public universities.
Part of this will
involve scholarships from foreign countries like Germany which has been
supporting higher education in Eastern Africa.
At the
same time, the government will be setting up the University Funding
Board to raise money to develop facilities and support teaching and
learning activities in line with provisions of the University Act.
Public
universities will also be required to set up quality assurance and
standards units to monitor teaching and learning programmes.
These
are some of the strategies being pursued to expand higher education
outlined Wednesday by Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi.
“Our
objective is to create systems that will enable universities to offer
quality education as they increase enrolment to meet the needs of a
growing population,” said Prof Kaimenyi.
The minister
outlined these strategies during a media briefing after opening a
regional conference on higher education cooperation between Eastern
Africa and Germany that started on Wednesday at Safari Park Hotel,
Nairobi.
The three-day conference is organised by the
German Academic Exchange Service and marks its 40 years of operation in
Eastern Africa. It is being attended by vice-chancellors, rectors and
scholars from East African countries, many of whom are beneficiaries of
German scholarships.
Regional director Christoph
Hansert, said the German Government in conjunction with Kenya’s Ministry
of Education will offer 54 scholarships for local students to pursue
postgraduate degrees in Germany this year.
The
secretary general of the East African Community, Dr Richard Sezibira,
said the community was working towards creating a common higher
education zone next year, where students from each of the member states
would have a chance to study in any university within the region and pay
local rates.
The president of German Academic Exchange
Service, Prof Margret Wintermantel, said her organisation would be
supporting initiatives to develop tools for enforcing quality standards
in East African universities.
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