5.1 The higher education system
5.1.4 Research and academic quality
Quality research requires appropriate and sufficient funding, availability of highly trained research staff, adequate and appropriate facilities and equipment. Kenya’s Vision 2030 recognises the role of research in knowledge creation and utilization in the country. Republic of Kenya (2007: 8) envisages the contemporary Kenyan university to be at the cutting edge of research and knowledge to enable the country to respond to its developmental challenges. Kenya is striving to be a globally competitive and prosperous nation as envisaged in its vision 2030. The concept of a national research and innovation system is gaining prominence as is depicted in Kenya’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategy (Republic of Kenya, 2009).
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By regional standards, Kenya is rated amongst the most competitive research systems in Africa. The African Innovation Outlook reported that Kenya had a total of 6, 799 research personnel of whom 3,794 were classified as researchers (NEPAD, 2010). Out of these 33% had PhD qualifications. A review of knowledge production in African countries placed Kenya fourth after South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria respectively (Obamba & Oanda, 2013). Between the year 2000 and 2010, Kenyan researchers produced 10, 508 papers featured in SCOPUS (INASP, 2012). The main contributors are researchers from University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
Funding for research remains a serious impediment. In 2008, Kenya spent 0.48% of its GDP on research, which is below the African target of spending 1% of GDP on research (NEPAD, 2010:37). Though funding to the higher education sector increased from Ksh. 15.7 billion to Ksh. 23 billion in 2011/12, it is not clear how much went to research (Jowi & Obamba, 2013: 93). The Wandiga Task Force (Republic of Kenya, 2007) and the Science and Technology Strategy Paper (Republic of Kenya, 2009) recommended the development of a culture of knowledge generation, allocation of more resources and developing modern research infrastructures in Kenyan universities. The National Council for Science Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) has the mandate of regulating and assuring quality in the science, technology and innovation sectors and giving advice to government on these matters.
Quality higher education has been identified as key to the production of human resources needed for the attainment of Kenya’s Vision 2030. Due to this, the government has committed to undertake a series of reforms in the provision of higher education. Enrolments at master’s and PhD levels have not only remained low (less than 10% of the total student population), but achieving such degrees takes long and has quality concerns (Republic of Kenya, 2006: 67; Ojiambo, 2009;
Commission for University Education, 2014). Quality assurance is a challenge to
education systems in all parts of the world and more so in the developing economies. There is a widespread perception that quality of university education in Kenya has declined as a result of a number of factors, including sharp increases in student numbers, inadequate human and physical capacities, inadequate funding, and poor working conditions (Owuor, 2012).
Quality Assurance in Kenyan universities is the mandate of the Commission for University Education (CUE). In addition, CUE is mandated to promote the objectives of university education, advise the Cabinet Secretary on university education policy issues, monitor and evaluate the state of university education systems in relations to the national development goals, licence any student recruitment agencies and activities of foreign institutions, develop policy for criteria and requirements for admission to universities, recognize and equate degrees, diplomas and certificates conferred or awarded by foreign universities and institutions in accordance with the standards and guidelines set out by the Commission, undertake or cause to be undertaken, regular inspections, monitoring and evaluation of universities to ensure compliance with set standards and guidelines, and to collect and maintain data on university education (Republic of Kenya, 2012; Commission for University Education, 2014).
Quality assurance in Kenya’s higher education system involves accreditation processes, which may generally be defined as a process of quality control and assurance whereby, as a result of inspection or assessment, an institution or its programmes are recognised as meeting minimum acceptable standards. The forms of accreditations include: Subject Accreditation where the focus is on specific subject matter, whatever the programme is; Programme Accreditation focuses on study programmes; and Institutional Accreditation, which focuses on the overall quality of an institution (Commission for University Education, 2014). As a process, the concept of practices in Accreditation and Quality Assurance are based on two main approaches, which include the standard-based approach and the fitness for purpose
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approach. The “standard-based” approach measures quality against pre-defined standards. It focuses on standards and the extent to which they are being met. The
“Fitness for Purpose” approach which assumes that quality is equal to objectives and goals as established by the institution (Comimission for University Education, 2014).
Apart from the role of the Commission for University Education, the universities are developing internal quality assurance frameworks. Through the regional quality assurance programme of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) most Kenyan universities have now set up quality assurance units (Ndirangu & Udoto, 2011) in addition to the quality requirements through ISO certifications and performance contracts.