EAST AFRICA: Low quality universities hinder growth

The poor quality of university education in the East African Community (EAC) is eating away the region's skills base, adding a fresh layer of challenge to the bloc's quest for faster growth and the dream of integration, writes Mwaura Kimani for Business Daily.

Educationists have warned that mushrooming universities and their uncontrolled expansion in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi was diluting content. This, coupled with relatively low government funding, risked denying the region the needed skills to boost economic growth.

"The region has ended up with so many universities where most of them have nothing to write home about," said Professor Mondo Kagonyera, Chancellor of Makerere University. "The downside is that the institutions are churning out half-baked graduates who can hardly meet the desired industry skills," said Kagonyera at a regional conference in Nairobi last Thursday.
Full report on the Business Daily site