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{
    "id": 306295,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/306295/?format=api",
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    "content": "degrees. So, the tallying of the number of our PhD degrees is what ranked some of our institutions below the others. But again, it is not updated in what was used because they were picking the same number of lecturers from the website. So, if you are not on the website or you have not updated your website, then the ranking does not give the exact picture of what is in the institution. It should be noted, however, that, that ranking criterion which was used does not give the right picture of most institutions. I want to give an example. In the ranking that was done by the first institution in January 2012, the University of Nairobi UoN) was ranked No.17. In the ranking that was done within the same quarter by the Fourth Colleges and Universities ranking, the UoN was ranked at No.11. The discrepancy again shows in the other universities. The Strathmore University was ranked No.43 in the first ranking and it was No.46 in the second ranking. Kenyatta University was ranked at No.45 by the first group but was No.54 by the second group. Egerton University was ranked by the World Universities Web at No.50, while it was No.59 by the second ranking. Moi University was ranked No.69, but it did not appear in the ranking of the first group. USIU was ranked No.71 by the ranking of the Fourth International Colleges and Universities, but it does not appear in the Ranking of the Web of the World universities. Jomo Kenyatta was ranked No.76 in January by the Web of the World universities, but it does appear at No.81 in the next group. So, Mr. Speaker, Sir, because of the different criteria even between the ranking agencies, it would appear that we do not get the right picture of where the universities fall. (b) Yes, I am aware how the programmes are offered in the universities. The programmes most of the universities offer are guided by the visions and missions of the universities and the national priorities such as is appearing in the Vision 2030. The other factors determining the kind of programmes offered by the universities is the interests of the applicants themselves. In this regard, the programmes are demand- driven. Therefore, it is not by the desire for financial gains on the part of the universities. It should be borne in mind that the public universities currently operate under individual Acts of Parliament which makes them autonomous to expand their programmes according to the desire of their senates. But most of all, they expand according to the market demands. (c) The Government is currently addressing the problems of shortage of lecturers in the public universities through a number of initiatives and I would like to outline a few for Members:- First, we have a bilateral agreement with the German Government through which their aid agency DAAD offers several scholarships to the teaching staff in our universities. This project mainly targets university lecturers in the fields of medicine, engineering and the sciences. Each year, a number of lecturers join German universities to study for their PhD programmes. We have, in fact, gone further and we have co- sponsored more candidates under this programme since last year. We, as a Ministry, are putting in Kshs20 million so that we also have partial scholarships. Second, we have what we call the GOK/ADB Higher Education, Science and Technology quality and relevant Improvements Project, which has a component on training of university teaching staff."
}