Universities need to audit programmes regularly to respond to market needs

The current debate about a proposal to scrap the bachelor of education degree has brought to the fore serious questions regarding university education and its place in society. The main concern is on relevance of the training offered by the universities and other institutions of higher learning to meet market demands.

That the Teachers Service Commission feels teachers graduating with the B.Ed will not perform as per expectations is a serious indictment of the training. If the society lacks confidence in graduates from its institutions of higher learning, then who are the institutions training for? There are graduates in other areas such as engineering and biotechnology that have reported low job absorption rates.

On the TSC being the mover of the change, there needs to be more debate from all stakeholders. The Ministry of Education has also failed the public by denying them access to the report by the taskforce on the competency-based curriculum that allegedly recommended the scrapping of B.Ed. Public documents ought to be in the public domain.

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However, universities need to audit their programmes regularly to respond to market and society needs and avoid churning out graduates who cannot be employed or employ themselves.

Every year, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service places students in institutions of higher learning, there are some courses that attract few and at times no students at all but still remain on the universities’ offering.

Universities have turned new focus on certificate and diploma training to make up for the loss of revenue following dwindling returns from the Module II programme. Although the alternative programmes will provide the income they badly need, they need to be more innovative in establishing extra revenue streams, as government funding is inadequate.