‘Double Intake’ Affects the Quality of University Education

Receiving a calling letter to join a public university is the dream of most form four leavers. The degree programme one is going to undertake does not matter at times, all one cares about is securing a place in a public university. The recently introduced ‘double intake’ of students into the public universities by the government

has turned this dream into a reality for many students. This has almost doubled the population of students joining public universities. It has also reduced the time students have to wait before joining the university which is normally one and a half years. The admission is almost immediately after receiving ones Kenya Certificate of Secondary education (KCSE) examination results and most universities are doing it in February and September. It is good that more students are joining the university but the whole scenario created by the double intake has a negative effect on our education system.

The move by the government to introduce the ‘double intake’ has been welcomed warmly especially by form four leavers who are thirsty for university education. They seem to appreciate the efforts being put in by the government to ensure more students are able to attain a degree. The government has put in a lot of effort so as to ensure the double intake is a success. There has been establishment of more associate colleges to the different universities so as to accommodate the increasing number of students. More members of staff have also been employed to run the different institutions; businesses around the different universities have also begun to flourish since the universities are in session all year round. This has contributed towards the economic growth and development of the country.

Our education system groups the form for leavers into various categories depending on their academic abilities; we have those who join universities both private and public, those who join colleges, those who join polytechnics, those who join teachers training institutes and those who undertake vocational training. The ‘double intake’ interferes with the balance created by the presence of the different institutions which absorb our form four leavers. This can be attributed to the fact that several polytechnics and university colleges have been upgraded to university colleges. This means that the institutions are occupied by the group joining the universities leaving those who are supposed to join the institutions with no institution to absorb them. Even though more people will join the universities there will still be a percentage of students whose qualifications remain to be for the polytechnic and college levels.

The universities have also gone ahead to introduce new courses. Some of the programmes lack qualified lectures to teach them and at times the courses remain unregistered with the relevant bodies which will cause the students problems when they want to practise in the different fields.  An example is the problems being faced by unregistered engineering students from almost all the public universities in the job market.

Having more students in the campuses translates to congestion and students have to compete for the limited resources. An example is Masinde Muliro University whereby students are struggling to get accommodation inside and outside the campus; they are also having problems in the lecture halls due to limited seats. The various science laboratories are not fully equipped and the ultra-modern library does not have the capacity to cater for the growing number of students. The number of lecturers in the various departments is not adequate to deal with the increasing number of students. This will in the long run have a negative impact in the quality of education in Kenya.

It is most likely that the system will result into half baked students since the lectures have a lot of work and the students are so many therefore they cannot be accorded individual attention. With limited attention from the lecturers students will just aim at passing exams giving little attention to the various details of their course content. The effect will be felt in the job market where employees will receive graduates who have no idea of what their line of profession entails. The universities will be producing many graduates in similar fields. This will resulted into flooding of the job market by degree graduates.  A larger population will be having a university degree and finding jobs by graduates will be close to impossible. Those who are lucky will opt to advance their studies giving them a competitive advantage, while others will direct their efforts to other economic ventures.

Having a country full of university graduates is good for the economic growth and development. However, this growth and development should not be at the expense of the ambitious youth who will at the long run not be able to secure jobs because of the flooded market or because they are half backed.

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