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"content": "to students taking engineering courses who had done five years of study yet, at the end of it, they were told that the university is not accredited to carry out or teach engineering courses. The parents of those students did not know what to do. Their children had studied for five years and they had paid fees. It was five years down the drain. Madam Temporary Speaker, there did not seem to be a clear policy within the Government on what to do with accreditation of courses. Some years back, the Government did very well during the reign of President Kibaki to charter very many universities. However, it would appear that the CUE did not do its job properly, because they did not follow up. There is no way you can allow a public university to go on and admit students, charge them fees and let them go on teaching, without any reference to the validity of what is being taught. As I speak, I do not even know what the fate of those students is. This university was originally a campus of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). However, after they became chartered, they were left on their own and the students ended up suffering. I would like to know the origin or genesis of very many campuses all over the place. You find that one university has campuses in very many places and sometimes with a few students. Whichever way you look at it, with our less endowed resources vis- à-vis the developed countries in terms of university lecturers, resources, research and library, it would not be prudent to establish so many universities. In my view, we would only be lowering the standards of our education. I think this is something which needs to be revisited nationally. For purposes of comparison and benchmarking, a country like Britain, which is literally our mother country, does not have satellite campuses anywhere. The University of Cambridge is just that. If you find that they have a campus, it is a special campus mostly within the same city, mostly to offer a new course. For example, if they never used to offer medicine courses, they could have a campus, especially for that. However, you will not find that they have campuses in Liverpool, Southampton and many other places. However, there are countries like India who are specialists in that. Recently, I was dealing with a student from there, and it turned out that the particular university that he attends has 289 satellite campuses. This is an issue that should be revisited by CUE. Madam Temporary Speaker, we send our children to learn oversees in good faith. The Government is aware of the various countries they go to and they are even given visas to go to such countries. However, when they come back, especially after completing the professional courses, which I am a little bit familiar with, architecture, engineering or law, the professional societies do not recognize those degrees. This is because they are not sure what kind of education the students attained from where they studied. The CUE, as and when they become aware, should liaise through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on whatever they do so that we do not send our children abroad and when they come back after so many years, you find that there is a question as to the qualifications that they have. Madam Temporary Speaker, coming back to the Motion, we are at a stage similar to where secondary schools were at Independence. During the colonial days, there were only a few secondary schools here and there. In fact, those few schools are the ones The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}