KENYA: Double student intake kicks off at Kenyatta

Kenyatta University has become the first in the country to enrol two batches of freshman students, in a double-intake plan that seeks to ease a biting higher education admissions crisis. Educationists expect the move to be followed by Kenya's other six public universities as they rush to clear a backlog of 40,000 students.

The university admitted new students in May and with the start of the new academic year last week opened its doors to its second round of students, combining those who graduated from high school in 2009 and 2010.

The freshmen at Kenyatta will have to learn on an alternating basis with the students who reported in May. And many will have to seek accommodation outside the university: Kenyatta has a bed capacity of 9,600 but a student population of at least 21,000.

"We have taken action to reduce the backlog, by inviting students earlier," said Kenyatta University Vice-chancellor Professor Olive Mugenda. "Students won't stay at home for two years."

Thousands of school-leavers qualify for university places annually. But an admissions backlog built up over decades and driven by demand for higher education exceeding the ability of universities to supply places, has meant that up to now applicants have had to wait for two years before joining a public university.

Mugenda said: "All public universities have been requested to reduce the admissions backlog."

In the new academic year, universities will admit 32,611 students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations in 2009 or 2010, out of 96,000 who qualified. Last year the Joint Admissions Board, which admits students on behalf of the government, admitted only 24,000 students.

Other Kenyan state universities are now mulling the logistics of admitting two shifts of students, especially as there has not been substantial expansion of already strained infrastructure to match growing student numbers.

As previously reported in University World News, most universities have now turned to private investors to help build new academic and residential facilities to cope with surging enrolments and the expected numbers under the double-intake plan.

Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya's newest public university, and Kenyatta University, the second biggest institution by student numbers, recently invited investors to build hostels on their campuses to ease congestion in facilities.

This is so because higher education enrolments have been rising by around 40% annually for the past five years, while real subsidies have increased by 4% to 5% over the period, leaving state universities, which rely heavily on government funding, in financial limbo.

According to government figures the number of students in public universities was 143,000 last year, up from 101,000 the previous year.

In June, the Joint Admissions Board announced it would admit one in three rather than one in four qualified school-leavers to universities. This would help Kenya clear its admissions backlog of 40,000 students by 2015.

But educationists argue that absorbing a much larger number of students will backfire if not accompanied by a commensurate rise in funding to enable institutions to expand educational and boarding infrastructure and hire extra tutors.

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