CUE rejects 18 courses and fire tutors teaching the courses
Universities regulator has urged the government not to fund degree courses that have not attracted enough students.
Commission for University Chairman Chacha Nyaigoti also said lecturers who teach such courses must now look for jobs elsewhere.
The Chairman said, there are several degree titles where students are not interested and govt cannot continue funding as it will be expensive to teach less students because each course will have several units taught by staff who are paid highly.
He was reacting to information which revealed courses that attracted few students in the 2022 KCSEKCSE placement by KUCCPSKUCCPS.
The shocking details revealed that some 18 degree courses attracted only one student each. Another 104 academic programmes attracted a maximum of 10 students each.
Among them were Bachelor of Science courses that include Food Security, Horticulture, Soil Science, Forestry, Dryland Agriculture, Biological Sciences, Geophysics and Mineralogy, Aquaculture and Fisheries Technology, and Environmental Chemistry.
Other courses include Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Bachelor of Science Networks and Communication Systems, Bachelor of Industrial Technology, Water Resource and Environmental Management, Environmental Resource Management, Library and Knowledge Management, and Bachelor of Arts Chaplaincy.
He said some academic programmes qualify to be mere course units.
The nature of programmes offered in various universities is largely determined by the nature of the institution’s establishment, market forces, availability of resources, controls by professional bodies, availability and adequate space, facilities and teaching staff.
Chacha said the revelation that nearly 200 courses attracted less than 10 students is a wake-up call for all stakeholders in the higher education sector.
Speaking in Naivasha last week during a media sensitisation workshop on the new funding model, KUCCPS Chief Executive Mercy Wahome questioned the rationale of some university courses that had an overload of staff but did not attract enough students.
Dr Wahome said the new funding formula might force universities to reassess if it is cost-effective to run such programmes.
Chacha said the universities might have been well-meaning in crafting the academic programmes, but advised that they must go back to the drawing board.
It has now emerged that private universities might lose a sixth of their staff as a ripple effect of the new funding formula.
This will include the administrative staff has to go, non-teaching staff, some teaching staff.
Kenya Association of Private Universities chairman Professor Stephen Mbugua says that each institution could be forced to lay off at least 20 members of staff in the first year of the implementation of the funding model.
He predicts that 10 universities that got less than ten students will be the most affected.
Meaning if they will lose 20 staff each, some 200 staff might be layed off in the first year.
Prof Mbugua says some universities might be forced to increase fees while other cost-cutting measures could include reducing perks of their staff such as the amount of medical cover and allowances.
CUE rejects 18 courses and fire tutors teaching the courses
