Nearly 600 colleges are registered to operate in Kenya, but only 10 have been accredited to offer programmes on behalf of foreign universities, higher education regulators have said.

Recent figures obtained by Business Daily from the Commission for Higher Education (CHE) indicate that only 18 out of 60 colleges, which have applied for accreditation to collaborate with either local or foreign universities over two years, have passed the test.

This comes as it emerged that parents, guardians and self-sponsored students in Kenya could be losing millions of shillings in fees and other charges in the belief that they would get certificates from colleges purporting to be offering degrees on behalf of foreign universities.

CHE, the body charged with the responsibility of overseeing the establishment and accreditation of private universities has raised a red flag over a deluge of complaints from parents and students who had paid millions of shillings to such colleges.

Normally, institutions apply for validation to offer various programmes after which, they are recognised by both employers and the education authorities.CHE Secretary Everett Standa, said a list of all accredited colleges operating in Kenya will be published by the end of this month, effectively exposing all bogus institutions.

"The danger of getting degree or diploma papers from unregistered institutions is that when a student wants to further their education, they would be barred from most universities," Prof Standa said.

"Even employers are now approaching the Commission to validate the papers especially those obtained from foreign institutions or those working in collaboration with international universities."

In October last year, Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi said out of 544 registered colleges, only 10 offered courses recognised by the Kenya National Examination Council.

The rest registered students for courses that were not approved by the council, the only institution with the mandate to vet programmes below university level.

However, CHE says the validation process is continuous and there are several institutions whose applications are awaiting consideration.

Prof Standa says efforts to identify unregistered institutions have been slowed by capacity constraints.This has seen the Commission revert to a wait and see attitude, relying mostly on complaints from students, parents and the general public, to follow up the bogus institutions.

Educationists and employers have questioned the degrees and accused the colleges of churning out half-baked graduates, at a time when unemployment is biting in the country.

"There are hundreds of institutions which had been licensed to offer certain programmes, but they had ended up rolling out different ones and we are in the process of identifying them," Prof Standa said. The end result is expected to be graduates with skills that can help them compete for jobs.

Last week, the Business Daily revealed that thousands of parents could be losing millions of shillings in the belief that their children would get certificates from two famous UK universities - Cambridge and Oxford - through a correspondent relationship with the Digital Advisory Learning Centre (DALC).

The centre, which has eight campuses across the country with a high concentration in Nairobi, claims to offer diploma and degree certification from the two universities but the reality is different.

DALC collaborates with two institutions in the UK - Cambridge Association of Managers and Oxford Association of Management - which run two separate colleges offering management courses but which have no working relationship with either Cambridge or Oxford Universities.

The colleges are accredited by Quality Assurance Commission Limited owned by a Malaysian businessman and which is not recognised by UK education authorities.

"There are two accreditation bodies in the UK and QAC is not one of them," Mr David Higgs, the head of British Council is said in an earlier interview.

Accreditation bodies in the UK fall under two categories, public and private.Private colleges are admitted through the British Accreditation Council and Accreditation Service of Independent Colleges. Mr Hicks said QAC is registered as a limited company.But DALC officials refuted the article saying the degrees were valid.

According to Prof Standa, the Commission is currently studying the validation application by DALC, while admitting that there was a mistake in the DALC case.

"The authority to collaborate with any learning institution must come from CHE," said Prof Standa.

The scenario in the local higher education sector is one where demand for vacancies has outstripped supply as indicated by the high number of student exports to Uganda, the US, Malaysia and the UK.

This, Prof Standa said, had opened loopholes for rogue institutions offering degrees and diplomas to thrive, dealing a blow to the commission's reputation as well as efforts to develop competitive skills among human resources in the country.

The post secondary education crisis continues to deepen every year, culminating into a large number of qualified high school graduates missing out on university admission.

Last year, for example, 82,134 candidates who sat for KCSE last year qualified for university admission, but only 16,000 places were available in the seven State universities.

The remaining 66,000 have to fight for the few places in private universities or pursue their aspirations through parallel degree programmes. A huge chunk is also expected to join tertiary institutions.

Related story:

Students seek fee refund as centre is exposed

By Morris Aron

Students at the Digital Advisory Centre (DALC) are considering what action to take in view of the unfolding saga over the institution's status and academic programmes.

The students, who spoke exclusively to the Business Daily, said they were considering demonstrations and lawsuits to pressure for a refund of their money. They also want the Commission for Higher Education to act on bogus colleges operating in the country that have earned millions of shillings from students, parents, and guardians.

DALC has been operating in the country for the last four years and now boasts over 1,000 students across its seven campuses. It has recently suffered a credibility gap following revelations that its accrediting institution, Quality Assurance Commission Limited UK, QAC-UK, is not recognised by UK authorities.

DALC offers several programmes of the Oxford Cambridge Association of Managers and Oxford Association of Management which claim a relationship with Cambridge and Oxford universities. However, the associations have no links with the two famed universities.

Besides DALC is not on the official list -seen by Business Daily - of centres authorised by the Commissioner of Higher Education to offer degrees or diplomas through links with overseas institutions.

"They applied recently for a collaboration certificate which is under consideration," said CHE's Secretary Prof Everett Standa.

Asked if an applicant can roll out programmes while the issue was being considered Prof Standa said that would be unprocedural.

"A mistake must have happened, you cannot offer programmes in collaboration with a university or college, either local or foreign without the proper authority," said Prof Standa

The confusion, said Prof Standa arose since DALC had been licensed by the Ministry of Education Science and Technology to roll out programmes locally.

Dr Obora had, in a clarification to the Business Daily, said DALC was offering the foreign programmes on the strength of the validation certificate No MOEST/PC/775/2002 issued by the then Ministry of Education, science and technology in 2002.

Now the students say they are considering their options after the proprietors of DALC- Humprey Obora and his wife, Faith- could not be reached for comment since the suspect certificates were unearthed by this newspaper.

The proprietors contention is that DALC offers only diploma programmes and has not tried to pass off as a university. However, they admit that the institution has no collaboration certificate from the Ministry of Education.

Two students - Sriram and Murtaza -who are due to complete professional graduate diplomas in IT in a months time said that they had spent Sh300,000 each over three years on the understanding that they would earn the prestigious Oxford and Cambridge University certificates.

Students are understood to have raised issues with the examinations, marking and grading systems at the institution last year.

They also raised issues with failure to adhere to academic schedule and mistakes on the certificates issued.

"Almost every student has a complaint on wrong names, gender or date of birth on their IDs. The complaints were rarely corrected," said Sriram.

The institution's fees average between Sh150,000 to Sh300,000 per course.

The BBC in January unearthed a global racket involving a Malaysian business tycoon and fictitious web-based institutions in the UK which have been getting money from international students in the promise of exchange of prestigious university credits, diploma and degree certificates.

One institution - Irish International University - was found to have offered bogus degrees to more than 5,000 international students over a seven year period in Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and several Asian countries.

The BBC established that QAC-UK was the accrediting agent for IIU despite being not registered and recognised as such. As a result of the expose, at least 256 institutions in the UK are being investigated and could be struck out off the list of academic institutions.

At the same time, UK is in the process of publishing a new book that will be used as the reference point as to which institutions are recognised and which ones are not.

Questions as to whether DALC was accredited started two year ago after the British Council omitted it from the roll of colleges it recommends students to study in if they want to transfer or earn credits to UK institutions.