By Hezron Roy
Local universities intending to collaborate with foreign learning institutions in offering various academic programmes will have to seek approval from the Commission for University Education.
According to the revised new regulations for the University Act No.42 of 2012 published by the Commission early this year under regulation number 53, collaborating foreign university is supposed to be accredited in its country of origin before admitting any students for academic programmes.
Under the same regulation, the foreign university shall be required to have graduated at least one cohort of students in the country of origin in the academic programme to be offered under the collaboration.
The obligations of a local university in the collaboration agreement, however, will be to provide the necessary resources to support the academic programme and where applicable, provide evidence of approval by the relevant professional body. The university can only collaborate with a maximum of two foreign universities to offer a maximum of two academic programmes under each collaboration.
The revised regulations also have set out the standards which are mandatory to be met when students are being admitted to such programmes, especially in foreign universities. Under part ten of the regulations, which applies to a Student Recruitment Agency, the two collaborating universities must seek CUE approval.
The Student Recruitment Agency must also be eligible to be licensed to operate in Kenya and have a physical address and produce evidence of Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement with a university or an institution it represents.
However, the new regulations require that any person who intends to enrol in any advertised degree programme, including an online, may seek clarification on the accreditation status of the application and the university from the Commission.
Concerning the establishment of universities and technical institutions in Kenya, the new regulations require that any person or entity seeking to establish a university shall apply to the Commission, under the new rules, attaching the relevant supporting documentation.
A University operating under a Letter of Interim Authority is required to make a formal application for the award of Charter at least eight months before the expiry of the letter.
According to the University Statistics Report of 2017/2018 carried out by the Commission the number of public chartered universities rose from 23 universities in 2016 to 31 universities by 2018, while that of private charted universities rose from 17 universities to 18 by 2018. On the other hand, public universities constituent colleges rose from four colleges in 2017 to six colleges in 2018.
