Kenya stands as the beacon
of higher education throughout East and Central Africa. We host vibrant
public and private universities with high attendance rates among our
general population.
The Kenya National Bureau of
Statistics estimates that more than 238,000 university students are
enrolled in Kenyan institutions. Our universities also attract droves of
learners from across the
continent who desire more credible, reliable, and interactive curriculum.
continent who desire more credible, reliable, and interactive curriculum.
However, how do the
structure of our master’s and doctoral programmes match with the United
Kingdom and the United States? Kenyan MBAs usually require remedial
survey courses in business subjects if a student does not hold previous
undergraduate classes in the same disciplines. American universities
generally do not require such pre-MBA remedial learning.
Also, American and British MBA classes are not typically
textbook-based or notes-based like often here in Kenya, but rather
article-based. The foreign MBA programmes though incorporate copious
amounts of group work. American and British institutions force group
learning even though research proves such styles difficult and
counterproductive to introverts. Also, the pre-eminent source of
innovative creative ideas originates from alone time while group
sessions extinguish creativity.
Additionally, in the
American model, which holds the highest ranked MBA programmes in the
world, there exists no research component in professional graduate
programmes. Students are expected to learn practical applications to
academic theory, not generate new research-based academic theory, on
their way to becoming titans of industry and policy.
Furthermore,
both American and British graduate degrees tend to be shorter with
fewer required classes as compared to Kenyan master’s.
But
does more busywork necessarily lead to better graduates? Alternatively,
should we use more impactful purposeful content in subject areas
instead of mixing together every subject under the sun that in some way
relates? A human resources graduate student being forced to study
corporate finance is akin to making someone learn to climb a tree before
they are allowed to learn to swim.
Then, once a
graduate student in Kenya completes an MBA, they often desire to go on
for advanced studies at the doctoral level. Kenya uses a mix of British
and American PhD models that proves disadvantageous to Kenyan learners.
In the British model, a student moves from an undergraduate
bachelor’s degree to a graduate-level master’s degree and then on to a
PhD. In the British model, the doctorate-level typically does not
include subject matter courses. The doctorate revolves around a unique,
original, substantial, and rigourous piece of research. A student is
presumed to be largely knowledgeable in the subject matter due to their
previous master’s degree in the area. As a result, British PhDs tend to
be shorter, around three years on average, and do not include classes or
a comprehensive subject exam. South Africa and many other commonwealth
nations follow this model. It proves successful with highly ranked
research output at commonwealth tertiary institutions.
The
American model provides a contrast. Usually, a talented learner
proceeds from their undergraduate bachelor’s degree directly into a PhD
programme. There is no need for a separate standalone master’s degree in
the American path to doctoral qualifications. Then, in the PhD, a
student usually undergoes two years of subject coursework and then takes
a mammoth all-encompassing comprehensive examination covering the
entire discipline. If the learner passes the “comps” exam, then they are
considered ABD (all but dissertation) and can often qualify for some
lecturing positions while they then take another two to four years to
write their research dissertation. The American model also proves highly
successful with the highest proportion of highly ranked universities in
terms of research output.
In comparison, most Kenyan
universities combine the difficult aspects of the British model with the
tough parts of the American model. In Kenya, a learner is generally
required to do a master’s degree as well as years of coursework within a
PhD. So, a Kenyan student spending six, seven, or more years in
graduate-level education in order to attain both a master’s and a
coursework plus dissertation doctorate often is the norm.
Despite
all the time Kenyan learners spend in class, Kenyan tertiary
institutions score dismally low on rankings of research output. Many
students get exhausted and worn-out trying to trudge through our
processes.
We need a well-trained labour force. We need
to remove senseless duplication and the compounded negative societal
effects from collective time wastage, consumer spending reduction, and
low family time on the general population.
What
bureaucratic educational structures might we discard in order to
streamline learning to yield better results? American legal and medical
education contains myriads or extra bureaucratic learning unlike the UK
or Kenya.
But how can Kenya remove bureaucratic
box-ticking hurdles from our business education too? Surely, we can
reduce the number of times a student must take the exact same subject at
bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Then we can focus on what
really matters: cutting-edge research and powerfully informed business
leaders that transform our counties and the nation as a whole.
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