Kenyatta University PhD students during the 38th graduation ceremony. A
higher education conference in Rwanda has been told that shortage of PhD
holders in Kenya is the main reason behind low graduation rates among
PhD students. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Inadequate lecturers with PhD in public universities in Kenya
has been cited as the major reason that delays post-graduate students
from graduating.
This is because the
few lecturers available supervise far too many students, therefore,
giving less attention to PhD students, a higher education conference
under way in Rwanda has been told.
“Supervisors
should be more transparent to students and should carry them along
throughout the research design and data collection as well as monitor
their activities to ensure they don’t deviate from research project
plan. Supervisors should not [be assigned to] too many students at the
same time,” the report recommends.
The
details, contained in a report by the Inter-University Council for East
Africa (IUCEA) that has been tabled at the conference, indicates that
post-graduate students do not access their supervisors easily,
especially at the early stages of their doctoral programmes.
PHD HOLDERS
The report reveals that a lecturer with a PhD serves 94 students against 30, the number recommended by higher education experts.
Besides, revised regulations require public
universities to hire only PhD holders as lecturers beginning December
this year despite doctoral students constituting only one per cent of
student population in the country.
But the decision to hire only PhD holders as lecturers has temporarily been deferred to allow for more negotiations with education stakeholders following outcry.
The data indicates 45,571 students have enrolled in master’s programmes while 5,604 are registered PhD students.
So
far, Kenya has less than 10,000 PhD holders with only 369 students
graduating last year yet the country needs at least 1,000 annually.
Students’
concerns have also captured in a report by Commission for University
Education (CUE) that was released last year highlighting their
frustrations.
On student progression,
the CUE report showed that half of master's students completed their
studies while less than 20 percent of PhD students completed their
programmes
LIMITATIONS
The
IUCEA report, tabled by Deputy Executive Secretary Mike
Kuria, also explained challenges experienced by supervisors, key among
them pressure to graduate students - which is the promotion criteria.
Other
challenges experienced among supervisors include: lack of experience,
failure to read thesis, language competence, lack of expertise in area
of supervision, delay in reading thesis, and lack of availability or
accessibility.
The Ministry of East
African community Chief Administrative Secretary Ken Obura, who attended
the forum, observed that quality of supervision in institutions of
higher learning is a critical issue.
“Whereas
every year, and even twice a year in some institutions, we release so
many graduate and post-graduate students to the market, the feedback
from the industry as well as the frustration of prolonged job search and
discouraged job seekers give a disturbing scorecard to the players in
this industry,” he said.
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