Regulator enforces caps on PhD intake

The universities regulator has started imposing caps on the admission of Masters and PhD students based on the lecturer population and qualifications amid questions over the quality of post-graduate degrees.

The Commission for University Education (CUE) on Wednesday admitted that universities were taking in more post graduate students than they can manage, lowering the quality of Masters and PhD students.

“The regulations are very clear and we have to enforce them to the letter,” said CUE chief executive officer Mwendwa Ntarangwi in the wake of a shocking report on poor supervision of 118 PhDs at Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) campuses and which have since been recalled for review.

The regulations require that a lecturer must not supervise more than five Masters students and three scholars pursing PhD qualifications. Universities have breached this ratio, lecturers say.

The enforcement of the caps comes at a time when an increasing number of Kenyans are pursing postgraduate qualifications for career growth in the competitive job market.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows that student enrolment on Master’s and PhD programmes in public universities stood at 67,407 in the year to June 2017, up from 16,153 in a similar period in 2012—reflecting a 317 per cent growth.

The review of teaching and award of postgraduate degrees started after Kenyans questioned 118 PhDs awarded by JKUAT during its graduation ceremony in June. It emerged that one JKUAT professor had supervised more than 10 PhD students.

The JKUAT audit revealed that 58 of the 118 questionable PhDs were taught in satellite campuses, yet they did not have the requisite human resource capacity.

Of the 308 PhD awarded at JKUAT in the last three years, only 160 were trained at the Juja main campus which means 148 PhD were from the nine campuses spread across the country.

On Wednesday, JKUAT Vice Chancellor Prof Victoria Ngumi said the university had set up a team to look at the CUE report—which revealed breaches like failure to follow guidelines on supervision load, duration of research, evidence of meetings between students and lecturers. The audit also questioned the publications or refereed journals where the graduates published their works. A refereed journal contains scholarly articles that have been reviewed for their quality by recognised academics or experts in the field.

“The Deans Committee, a subcommittee of the University Senate, is working on the report, paying attention to the various findings and recommendations made by the CUE,” said Prof Ngumi. “All degrees of the university are meritoriously earned and no student is allowed to graduate without going through the due process regarding coursework, seminars, original research, external examination and publications,” said the VC.