Are you locked out of Kenyan public universities?

  

Date Posted: 6/28/2012 12:01:31 AM

Posted By: Kitavi  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 1987

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Students who sat for their Kenya certificate of secondary but failed to get admission to the local public universities should not lose heart. If they have met the minimum requirements for university education,these students can opt to take parallel degree programmes. They could also go to many middle level institutions which offer degree and diploma programmes.

For a long time,the public universities have not been able to absorb all those who qualify for admission in these institutions. It was due to this shortage that the government increased the number of public universities from one to six. These are the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Moi University Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Egerton University and Maseno University.

Despite the increase, these institutions have not been able to enroll all who qualify for higher education. Every year thousands are shut out of and have to look for alternatives. This acute shortage of places in local universities has forced thousands of Kenyans who are able to seek higher education out of the country. Many have gone to the United Kingdom, India, Australia and the the United states of America.

Kenyans spends about 16 billion shillings in school and college fee for students abroad. This amount if redirected to local universities,can have a great impact on the education sector as a whole.

Kenya leads other African countries in sending students to the United States. By 2002, the country had 7,097 students in US universities up from 6,229 in 2001,a 14% rise according to a Washington based Institute off International Education.since introduction of the parallel degree programmes, the number of Kenyans preferring to join local universities is rising. Even then, the need for higher education is far from being met today.

With distance learning and e-learning technology many students are finding it cheaper to study in

Kenya for degrees and diplomas from local and foreign universities and colleges many of which advance in press.

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