{UAH} FOREIGN STUDENTS IN KENYA

By MAHUL SHAH
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I met two young foreign students last week. They are both enrolled in universities here — the Australian at a private university, and the American at a public university.

Both of them have studied up to master’s level in Australia and in the US, but are now in Kenya, and they wished to further their education.

What they told me was quite shocking. First impressions of a public university in Kenya is the lack of resources.

The American found the library embarrassingly devoid of books and journals, and had very few computers. Internet speeds were slow.

Having come from a university in the US, where a library carries more then half a million books and journals, to one that had less than 25,000 books and journals made her feel sad for fellow students.

Well, Kenya and America may be at different development stages. However, when it comes to human capital development, there should be no deliberate compromises.

STUDENT ENRICHMENT

It is not that local universities don’t have access to funds. Eldoret town is going to get a 26-storey building put up by funds from a university pension scheme. What if these funds were loaned to the university to help build resources for students?

Think of a university spending Sh3.5 billion on a “Uni City.” Does such a university lack funds to develop more urgent resources for students?

In Australia, Curtin University opened a new Engineering Pavilion at a cost equivalent to Sh2.6 billion, but for use by students.

It includes project rooms, self-learning studios and structured learning rooms, functional areas to facilitate a modern educational experience, offices for research staff and postgraduate students, as well as active learning workshop based classrooms.

These funds were used for student enrichment, and not for university enrichment. That’s the difference.

The Australian student joined a local private university that has been around for more then 40 years. He joined an undergraduate class. Having studied the subject before, he could see that the lecturer was wrong in some instances, but there was no way he would challenge her.

CHALLENGING LECTURERS

Had it been in Australia, he would have done so because there, students are encouraged to challenge their lecturers.

Australia, UK, USA and Canada have all adopted a more interactive learning style. This means that memorising facts to be regurgitated at exams has no place.

Instead, students are asked to explore concepts and understand how those concepts relate to each other, and to the real world. When it comes to exams, students are expected to give their own views.

My Australian friend felt that he would fail his exam and unit, as he was not used to memorising and sticking with the view of the lecturer.

In fact, the American had failed her first assignment, and that’s because she had not written down her lecturer’s view, choosing to instead give her own perspective, and of course, with reasoning. She thought that was what had been asked of her.

'HALF-BAKED GRADUATES'

All of these come down to what sort of employees we want or want to be. Do we want to employ staff who will always say yes and never give their own opinion? Do we want to be employees who will never challenge in a productive and meaningful way?

This encounter opened my eyes to the reality of the much-talked-about “half-baked graduates.” These are people who have graduated, but lack work skills or enough knowledge to be able to work effectively.

Where does the blame lie in the way students are taught here? The lecturers? The students? The deans and faculty heads? The vice-chancellors? I think its everyone.

Students must start questioning what they are being taught. Lecturers need to move away from rote learning, and vice-chancellors, many of them widely travelled, need to bring back best practices.

The writer is a director at the International Education Centre, Nairobi

 

 

EM

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