Education cabinet secretary Prof. George Magoha has directed all Kenya public universities to immediately stop opening additional satellite campuses arguing that the sporadic opening of such campuses has not only compromised the quality higher Education, but also diluted the standards that ought to be adhered to in all public universities.
Prof Magoha argued that he doesn’t see the logic of having so many campuses in same town offering the same courses.
He further went ahead to insinuate that the government is in the process of merging some universities in a bid to improve efficiency and at the same time ensure public universities offer quality education that is relevant to the dynamic market demands in the country.
The move comes at the backdrop of speculations that the government through its placement agency KUCCPS was considering raising was considering raising University entry cut-off points owing to the increased number of students who scored the minimum university entry mean grade of C+.
This means that the government will be forced to source for additional funds to a tune of Kshs 7.5 Billion in order to absorb all students who attained the minimum entry grade.
The move, however, is bound to to attract opposition from the vice chancellors of Kenyan public universities who have argued in the recent past that the Education CS has been making major decisions affecting the the Higher Education Sector without involving the major stakeholders.
Universities are currently facing financial challenges which has been caused by the decline in the number of the number of students enrolling under the parallel programs due to the governments decision to fund all students who attain the minimum entry grade of C+.