KEY ISSUES IN MANAGING

CROSS-BORDER PROVISION OF EDUCATION EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES FROM KENYA

PAPER PRESENTED BY: PROF. KAREGA MUTAHI

PERMANENT SECRETARY MINISTRY OF EDUCATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NAIROBI, KENYA AT UNESCO/OECD AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE ON

11TH -12th OCTOBER, 2004.

1. INTRODUCTION• Kenya is one of the African countries that straddles the equator

• Has varied climatic conditions ranging from sea level to snow capped Mt. Kenya.

• 20% is high potential, 80% ranges from medium potential to arid lands (ASALS) with a population of 28.7 m people of different races. (2003 survey)

• 3 education systems are in operation i.e. national system of education locally known as 8.4.4.(KCPE & KCSE) and various unique systems offered by embassies and high commissions. The British system is offered in exclusive private primary and secondary schools i.e. 7.6.3 offering GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels.

• The systems attract learners both within and outside Kenya, mainly from eastern African countries (for national system). No accreditation in primary and secondary education in Kenya, however the Govt. through MOEST Inspectorate is responsible for QA - regardless of ownership of schools.

• For Schools run under embassies, there is no QA by the Government .

2. THE BROAD POLICY CROSS-BORDER EDUCATION

• The Govt’s broad policy for education is articulated in documents like Strategic Plan (ESSP 2003).

• The report of National Conference on Education and Training (2004). And

• The draft sessional Paper (2004)

In all these papers the Government’s policy is to provideEducation and training through partnership with private sector

and other stakeholders The overall vision is to provide quality education to all Kenyans

The medium and long term objective on QA is to deliver quality education to any learner who joins an institution in Kenya.

3. THE TRENDS AND STATUS OF CROSS-BORDER HIGHER EDUCATION

• Since the inception of the 6th National Development Plan (1989-1993), the Govt. policy on higher Education has been geared towards development of a skilled and versatile workforce to meet increasing demands in technical and professional areas, which has lead to expansion of local public universities and a growing number of private universities.

• The Govt. encourages partnership between public and private sector , and that approach is expanding the opportunities for acquisition of higher education in Kenya.

• There is an increased number of students from other countries with the rising No. of private universities.

• Its interesting to note that while public universities have 33% of students as female, private ones have Gender parity.

3.1 TYPES OF INSTITUTION AND COURSES OFFERED

In the last decade, private post-secondary institutions have expanded rapidly in terms of the No. of Institutions, Courses offered and student enrolments. These can be classified to the areas of their specialization:

Teacher training colleges-offering certificate and Diploma level

qualifications for the teaching career. Business schools - offering Accounting and business management courses. Information and technology colleges – mainly computer schools and

academies. Professional colleges – offering courses in areas like insurance and banking.Main institutions offering cross-border education services are Public & private

universities, commercial colleges, Virtual university and institutions attached to embassies and High commissions (study carried out by CHE )

3.1.1 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES INVOLVED

• Public universities are working with foreign universities thro’ various MoUs to offer key academic programs such as:

University of Nairobi: Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, Law, Sciences and Social

Sciences.Moi University- Eldoret: Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine, Education, Social

SciencesKenyatta University –Nairobi: Education, Arts and Commerce.Egerton University- Njoro: Agriculture, Engineering and Education.JKUAT: Agriculture, Technology, Computer Science and Engineering.Maseno: Education.Total enrolment of local students is 72,875 students. There are also

exchange students, mainly at postgraduate level.

3.1.2 PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

• There are 17 private universities in Kenya, 6 being chartered & 5 operating under letters of interim authority, registered to offer higher education. Their affiliation to foreign universities is an example in provision of cross-border education.

United States International University(USIU)Established in 1952, & having started its operations in Kenya in

1970, USIU is one of the best practices of cross- border education. (Enrolments up to 2,900 students in 2004)

USIU enjoys dual accreditation and offers the following programs: International Relations, Psychology, Journalism, Hotel & Restaurant Management, Business Administration, Information Systems technology ant Tourism Management.

3.1.3 EXAMPLES OF COMMERCIAL COLLEGES

a. Grafins CollegeThe total number of students enrolled is 731.

b. Kenya College of Accountancy KCA) The total number of students enrolled was 6,645 in 2003.KCA has entered into partnerships with a number of foreign

Universities.

3.1.4 African Virtual University(AVU)AVU collaborates in teaching and research with institutions and universities in

USA, Australia and Canada through satellite and internet technology.

More than 24,000 students from 17 African countries have completed a semester-long course.

Main courses are Information Technology and Business courses.

Four public universities are collaborating in this programme, the most active ones being University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University.

3.1.5 Australian Study Institute (AUSI)

AUSI was established in Kenya in 2000, and offers Diploma & Advanced Diploma courses in;

Business administration, Information technology and Diploma in Information Technology

3.1.6 CHARLES KENDAL EDUCATION SERVICES

Established in 1999, it offers Education services to those seeking international education or wishing to enroll in Universities abroad through Distance Learning (DL).

Courses are linked to University of Leicester in UK, University of Melbourne in Australia and University of North Wood, Saginaw Valley and Johnson and Wales in USA.

Courses include:Education counselling

Information on Education opportunities abroad, application processing, co-ordination and administration of examinations.

The total number of students who have graduated are 18.

3.1.7 THE BRITISH COUNCIL TEACHING CENTRE

It started offering trans-border education services in 1992.The students register for the programmes directly with UK universities, and

materials are mailed directly to the students.Examination materials are sent directly to the Center Manager for

examination administration.

The services offered in addition to examination administration are: Registration of students Invigilation Student information meeting.

The universities involved are Warwick, London, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Durham, Southern Queensland, Deakin, Bangor and Henley Management College.

Courses offered include: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supplies(CIPS)

4. QUALITY ASSURANCEThe important elements to consider when addressing QA include:

(a) Admission CriteriaFor diploma courses the admission criteria include: Pass “C” in KCSE Specified grade required for certain courses

For admission to degree programmes, one needs: At least mean grade of “C+” in KCSE Specified number of points in any given cluster of subjects required for

particular courses (are often imposed)

(b) Physical and Learning /Teaching resourcesProvision of physical facilities & learning/ teaching resources is another

determinant.On the whole, cross-border private institutions have teaching, learning

resources comparable to those in public institutions.Public institution have greater potential given physical and human capital

resources available to them.

4.2 CAPACITY BUILDINGa. Staff DevelopmentMany cross-border education institutions lack policies on staff development

and capacity building. A number of Lecturers are foreigners and Volunteers, posing a serious challenge to cross- border provision and has a bearing on national provision due to the sharing of academic staff.

b. Criteria for registration of institutions CHE is responsible for registration of degree awarding institutions while

MOEST registers non-degree awarding institutions.

CHE’s conditions are that the institution must have: A registered Manager

Appropriate numbers of qualified staff

An inspection report from MOH and MOEST.

Application to the Minister for Education.

4.3 ACCREDITATIONThere is no specialized agent for accreditation of cross-border provision of

education in Kenya.The functions are undertaken by CHE, individual public or private institutions.

a. Collaborations between cross-border education providers and recognized public institutions of higher learning in Kenya.

Collaboration between any public university and a transnational provider is initiated through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. This is allowed in the respective Acts of Parliament for the Various public universities.

b. Collaborations with private universities.Chartered private Universities are not allowed to collaborate with cross-

border education providers.

Where a private university wishes to introduce new courses, it is taken through an evaluation criteria by CHE and then taken to be a course of the local university.

(C ) CHE ACCREDITATION MODEL

CHE accreditation model has 4 parts, namely:

Submission application for establishment of a private university giving its proposal and evaluation of the proposal

Grant of letter of interim Authority

Preparation of legal instruments

Final Inspection and Award of Charter.

5. CHALLEGES AND ISSUES IN CROSS-BORDER EDUCATION

Provision of cross-border education is hampered by several factors, e.g. infrastructure, human capacity and other resources. Some of the challenges are discussed below:

5.1 National accessibility to the internet.In some cases access to the internet is through dial up of leased lines to ISPs.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has challenges of providing effective bandwidth to users of internet.

Telephone lines are mainly concentrated in urban areas. The points where Jambonet can be accessed in the country are few.

Monopoly of fixed telephone service provision

Limited availability of ICT facilities in institutions

Low level of awareness on usefulness of ICT in the general development of the country.

Lack of relevant ICT policy to promote e-commerce and e-use in other sectors.

5.2 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND ACCREDITATION

It is difficult to establish the number of students participating in on-line courses.

Local institutions tend to only facilitate the e-learning by providing facilities and support services such as labs, classes and site personnel, while the transnational providers develop programmes, teach, evaluate and award degrees.

The QA mechanism is therefore left to transnational providers and the product is not vetted by CHE (if collaboration is with a recognized public institution) – this will change soon

5.3 CAPACITY BUILDING FOR CROSS-BORDER EDUCATION SERVICES In Kenya most instructors are from public institutions and 70% of the staff

in cross-border education work on part-time basis. Part-time members of staff (full-time staff in public institutions) are

benefiting from stronger ICT infrastructural facilities in private and commercial types of institutions.

Providers benefit from experienced staff from public institutions.

5.4 LOW ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Access to higher education remains limited at approximately 10% of those who qualified.

Currently, public and private universities accommodate approximately 30% of all qualified students. This percentage doesn’t include adult learners in search of opportunities to improve and acquire knowledge and qualifications.

It also does not include any foreigners who are working but may be looking for education opportunities in Kenya.

5.5 COMPETITION FOR STUDENTS

Public and private universities have entered into an era of stiff competition from trans-national providers, who have come up with programmes that are flexible for those seeking life long education while continuing to keep in employment.

5.6 COST OF FINANCING OF CROSS-BORDER EDUCATIONFees charged by trans-national providers are comparable to those charged

by private universities. These fees are 50% more than those charged for similar courses in public universities.

The charges can only be afforded by middle and upper level economic strata who can therefore qualify for better jobs, posing a serious implication to the achievement of the national goals of equity and social integration.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS AND WAY FORWARD

6.1 Recommendations related to cross border educational services.

Trans-national providers of education need to be registered under appropriate legislation in order to ensure quality and compliance.

The providers need to be evenly distributed between rural and urban areas.

The programmes offered need to have a balance between market driven courses and the need to develop human resources to meet national development goals.

Cross-border provision may never provide for the poor.

We need capacity building for quality assurance.

THANK YOU