The fate of thousands of engineering students in Kenya hangs in the balance after it emerged that only 48 out of 100+ Engineering courses have been accredited by the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK). This means that thousands of Engineering students cannot be registered as engineers upon graduation and therefore risk missing out on employment opportunities.
Some of these bogus courses are in well-established
institutions with a strong background in engineering, such as the University of
Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Egerton
University and Kenyatta University.
Egerton tops the list with five courses – civil and
environmental engineering, electrical and control engineering, civil and
structural engineering, mechanical engineering and technology, and manufacturing
engineering).
Kenyatta University has four – petroleum engineering, biomedical
engineering, aerospace engineering, and agricultural and biosystems
engineering. South Eastern Kenya University has agricultural engineering, civil
engineering, electrical and electronics engineering and mechanical engineering.
“It is a waste of resources for the parents and students
taking unaccredited courses and such waste affects our country’s economy
negatively. Unaccredited universities usually do not have the same educational
standards and policies as accredited ones and hence the quality and standards
of the education offered cannot be guaranteed ,” said Ms Margaret Ogai, the EBK
registrar when she appeared before the National Assembly’s Committee on
Education and Research.
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Ms Ogai was responding to questions by MPs regarding a
petition by some students from Egerton University who have complained that
their right to education has been violated by being taken through an
unaccredited course. The three Egerton graduates who filed the petition – David
Olumasai, Ian Gicobi and Elvin Mangeni – graduated in 2019 with a Bsc in water
and environmental engineering, which is not accredited.
They said that they have been unable to secure jobs and
wanted Parliament to compel the university to facilitate them to undertake
eight remedial units for them to upgrade to BSc in civil and environmental
engineering, which is accredited.
Alternatively, they asked to be paid each Sh750,000 by the
university to enable them to upgrade to an EBK-accredited civil engineering
course from another university. They also wanted the university stopped from
enrolling more students into the programme.
Civil engineering students from Multimedia University of
Kenya were last week sent on a “break” after they boycotted classes protesting,
that the institution has not been giving them accurate information regarding
the accreditation of their programme.
“We can’t further our studies because our course isn’t recognised anywhere else apart from MMU. We have been protesting since First Year and now we are in the Fifth Year. The university has also refused to give us any transcripts,” Ms Hillary Akola, the class representative, told the Nation.
The problem points to a disconnect between EBK, KUCCPS, university
managements and the Commission for University Education (CUE), which approves
curricula for institutions.
Regrettably, some of the students were placed in the
programmes by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service (Kuccps)
following recommendation by the Ministry of Education.
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