No more Diploma and Certificate Courses in Universities.

Universities will stop admitting certificate and diploma students by July. The Commission for University Education (CUE) on Monday said the courses should be a preserve of technical institutions with universities focusing on degrees and post-graduate training.

Students enrolled before the deadline will be allowed to complete their certificate and diploma courses.

“Universities will cease to admit students to certificate and diploma courses by June 30, according to the Universities Regulations 2014,” CUE chief executive David Some said on the sidelines of a consultative meeting of university officials in Nairobi.

Prof Some said oversight on the quality of the diploma and certificate now falls with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA).

The TVETA chairman Wilson Ogola said that only technical universities will be allowed to continue offering certificate and diploma courses beyond July.

“The TVET Act is very clear on legal action to be taken against any defaulters of this requirement. We will not hesitate to invoke it,” he said.

The University of Nairobi vice-chancellor Peter Mbithi said that the institution would stop offering the courses in line with the regulations.
“We will comply,” he said at the meeting.

 The regulations also require universities to end their collaborations with the mid-level colleges by end of June.

The pacts have seen collages offer degree courses at lower cost and less stringent academic requirements.

Students’ enrolment in universities grew 34 per cent last year to 324,560 students, buoyed by the approval of new degree courses and the setting up of new universities.

The number of approved degree courses by the commission rose to 362 in 2013 from 160 in 2012.

NATION NEWS