allAfrica.com: Kenya: College Accreditation Scam Unearthed (Page 1 of 3)

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.

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