Half Baked Engineers? Graduates From Top Universities in Trouble Over Degrees

By Jane Okoth
Engineering is one of the most complex courses that are believed to be taken by straight A students as one ends up with a well paying career if they are lucky to be employed.

But now it so happens that these courses are the cause of major controversies in Kenyan public institutions of higher learning.

According to the Daily Nation, some engineering courses offered in public universities in the country lack the required qualities and have therefore been suspended.

And the unfortunate outcome is the careers of thousands of students who undertook this course being put in jeopardy.

The Daily Nation further reports that three public universities have been forced to recruit lecturers from foreign countries to meet fresh quality demands by the Engineers Board of Kenya.

These are courses that have been undertaken in well known Public Universities namely Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Egerton University, Technical University of Mombasa, Maseno University and all colleges offering engineering courses.

There are 8,700 trained engineers in Kenya at the moment, according to the Engineering Board of Kenya but out of this, only 2,000 have been licensed to practice.

However, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has indicated that students who have already completed their courses would not be forced to repeat their degree programmes.

This is a major cause of alarm as it means that their fate still hangs in the balance.

“Regulation of Universities is important as well as the courses offered. If public universities such as Moi and Kenyatta cannot be cleared to offer some engineering courses, what of the private ones?” asks Eric Otwoma, a Second Year Student at a Private University.

“Even with this development, some unknown university somewhere in the country is in the process of being awarded a charter so the government is partly to blame for this,” he opines.

Jeremiah Njuguna, a part time lecturer at a technical institution in Nairobi is for the opinion that the learning institutions need to be more extra vigilant in offering quality education to students.

“This means that even now thousands of Kenyans are being duped into being awarded bogus degrees in engineering courses,” he adds.

He further opines that “If we are not careful in the future, I see this country producing a generation of quack engineers.”

“Sadly the students will have their future ruined by being forced to repeat a 5 year degree course and the worst part is that they are not to blame,” says Sylvia Nduta, also a Student at a Public University.

“I blame this whole situation on the government. Whoever came up with the idea of universities mushrooming all over the country is slowly killing the education system in the country,” she adds.

She tends to think that “That is the reason students are overwhelming tutors giving them an option of hiring bogus lecturers,”

“Right now I am aspiring to be an engineer and this news is not at all good to me,” says Paul Ndege, a High school Graduate planning to join the University.

“People like us who aspire to study these courses in the university need serious guidance on the issue,” he concludes.

What is your opinion on Bogus Engineering Courses offered in the country and what needs to be done?

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