Committee probes universities over high enrolment despite limited resources

The National Assembly Education Committee has launched an investigation into the university placement process following reports that some institutions have enrolled far more students than they can handle.

According to data tabled before the committee on the placement of students to public universities, Kisii University has enrolled 16,464 students from the 2023 KCSE cohort—the highest number—despite having insufficient staff and infrastructure.

It is followed by Maseno University (10,821), Kenyatta University (10,211), Karatina University (9,180), the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (8,903), Masinde Muliro (8,724), Moi (8,646), the University of Nairobi (8,604), Chuka (8,270), Tom Mboya (7,536), and Egerton (7,400).

Appearing before the Committee on Tuesday, officials of the Commission on University Education (CUE) were unable to give satisfactory explanations for the discrepancies in student placement, prompting further scrutiny.

Marcela Mwaka, the CUE's head of the accreditation programme, explained that Kisii University’s high enrolment was due to its numerous accredited programmes.

“We validate by considering the available resources at the university and the accreditation status of the programmes. Kisii University has 82 accredited degree programmes, the third largest,” Mwaka told the committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly.

Kasipul Kabondo MP Eve Obara questioned how Kisii University could handle the largest cohort while other established institutions like the University of Nairobi have more accredited programmes.

“Can they confirm which is the largest university in Kenya? I have seen the capacities given here, and in your record, Kisii University appears to be the largest. Is that factual?”

Kibra MP Peter Orero also expressed scepticism, asking, “[Are you telling me that] Kisii University is the biggest university in terms of lecturers and other facilities; that it doubles Nairobi University?”

In response, the CUE maintained that its accreditation report showed Kisii University met the minimum requirements to accommodate the high number of students.

“We also consider the size of the learning facilities and the available laboratories. The available resources should dictate the number of students placed in a programme,” Mwaka said.

However, it was revealed that the institution’s over 16,000 students would require 1,000 lecturers to maintain an appropriate teacher-student ratio, yet it has only 317 academic staff, 91 lecture halls, and 14 laboratories.

“We would expect the institution to have over 1,000 academic staff, but they currently have 317,” Mwaka added.

Melly criticised the CUE for focusing solely on the number of accredited programmes and not considering the adequacy of teaching staff or infrastructure.

“Are you sleeping on the job or aiding inefficiency? We will deal with this issue substantially. You are aiding ineffectiveness in our universities. If you can allow a university to have 16,000 students with only 317 staff, you are misusing Kenyans,” he said.

Obara added, “What is the workload of every lecturer? How many students or courses is one lecturer supposed to teach?”

Chair of Vice Chancellors Daniel Muganda explained that the CUE conducts yearly approvals before the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Services (KUCCPS) carries out the placement.

“It’s the mandate of KUCCPS to validate the numbers we give them. Sometimes it requires them to come physically to check the capacity declared. Again, in the accreditation of programmes, they ascertain whether we have the necessary facilities,” Muganda said.

Despite these assurances, the legislators remained unconvinced, pointing to the CUE’s apparent inefficiency in student placement. They said they would continue the investigation as the effectiveness and fairness of the university placement process remain under scrutiny.