Lean and green: Kenya adopts online accreditation process

Kenya is moving its university programme accreditation process from a manual to an online system.

It’s “out with the old, in with the new,” says the country’s Commission for University Education (CUE), citing transparency and efficiency as the key factors that necessitated the change away from the old system that had for a long time been marred by discrepancies.

The manual system involved delivering five hard copies of the programme that a university wished to have accredited. The commission would then select a group of experts who would review the programme and make decisions on the accreditation.

According to the commission’s CEO, Professor Mwenda Ntarangwi, the transition had been long overdue, as the manual system had resulted in a lot of complaints from various institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the process being fast-tracked.

“The old system requires universities to send five [paper] copies of a programme they wish to submit for accreditation. I am sure we will save a few trees with the new system,” Ntarangwi told University World News.

Once a university and its stakeholders have identified a programme they want to add, they present their proposal to CUE, which then decides whether it has met the existing standards. This would involve a team of experts that would go through the documents and comment on it.

The commission would then perform an on-site review of the institution involved to determine its capability to handle the intended programme. Among the factors to be verified would include:

• Market forces or demand;
• Availability of resources;
• Controls by professional bodies;
• Availability and adequate space; and
• Available facilities and teaching staff.

Tracking system

“I have heard from vice-chancellors and other leaders at our universities who may say that they submitted programmes, but they have taken too long to get accredited.

“The delays could be in the university, where suggested changes are being implemented, and not held up at the commission, as most would claim,” Ntarangwi said.

“With the new system, we will be able to pinpoint exactly where the delay is, if there is any.”

The new online system is expected to enable both the universities and CUE to keep track of the accreditation process, right from the proposal stage. It will also help save a lot of time and money that was previously spent on delivering and going through countless sheets of paper.

From June, Ntarangwi said, no university will be expected to submit hard copies of their programme proposals.

The new system requires the university to upload the application to CUE’s portal together with a self-assessment report which the commission uses to prepare for regular audits of institutions.

“The commission will make sure the report meets the basic expectations and then select peer reviewers who will go through the report or programme on the portal and submit their comments.

“The university will then make the revisions online, after which the commission will take the next steps of the accreditation processes, Ntarangwi said.

“The new process will allow all stakeholders to follow the entire process and know where there is a bottleneck, if any. A vice-chancellor will now, for instance, be able to check the status of his or her programme being considered for accreditation.

“The log-in will be accessed using personalised logging credentials that we supply. In case of delays, the person can see and note exactly where the system is clogged. This will make the process more transparent,” he added.

Beryl Mate, executive director for administration planning and development at Zetech University, welcomed the transition to an online system.

“The manual system involves printing and scanning a lot of documents, and having to personally deliver them to the commission, which was quite tedious and costly.

“Most institutions are also trying to ‘go green’ by limiting the amount of paperwork involved in their daily activities. So, the online system is a welcome change,” Mate told University World News.

The new system could also help Kenya’s universities to become better aligned with the demands of the job market. A report by CUE on the state of university education, revealed that humanities programmes were the best represented in most institutions (at 58% of the total), and this resulted in a low staff-to-student ratio.

Architecture, law, teacher training, engineering and veterinary programmes had the least representation, standing at about 1% each.

The report also revealed that the majority of academic staff (69%) were employed at public universities, while 19% were at private universities. The remaining 12% were distributed among various colleges.