On 8^th March 2016,  Dr. Fred Matiang’i, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology launched the first baseline survey of engineering departments’ report at the Intercontinetal Hotel, Nairobi.

The survey was funded by Kenya Education Network, the National Research and Education Network of Kenya. It was conducted by two researchers – Prof Meoli Kashorda, Executive Director of KENET and Chairman of the Editorial Board of Kenya Engineer, Journal of Institution of Engineers of Kenya and Prof Timothy Waema, School of Computing and Informatics, University of Nairobi.  

Noting that slightly over 5,000 of the 10,000 students who have graduated with engineering courses were from institutions with accredited engineering programs, Dr. Matiang’i  urged universities to focus on their core mandate and excel in it.

Among other findings, the baseline survey report highlighted that; there were only 12 public universities that were offering engineering degree programs; there are 503 engineering faculty members currently in Kenya, with 193 of them with PhD degrees that are recognized by the engineers Board of Kenya (EBK); and the low numbers of engineers joining research in engineering fields (of the 10,343 undergraduate students enrolled since 2013, only 35 PhD degrees were recorded!). From the survey, the recommendation on the need for engineering departments to collect and maintain academic and research data for planning and decision making and the need to consolidate departments in order to increase productivity were noted. The data could also be used to advocate for increased institutional support for engineering, as well as university and industry collaboration.

The Report is available for download https://ereadiness.kenet.or.ke/engineering. Other baseline surveys of computer science and information systems departments and medical schools shall be released by June 2016.