East Africa university heads push for joint recognition of degrees

Vice Chancellors of universities in East Africa and higher education stakeholders are meeting in Nairobi to discuss how to jointly recognize degrees from their respective institutions.

The meeting bringing together heads of varsities from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and South Sudan seeks to remove barriers students face when seeking to advance their classes in the region.

The forum also aims at developing strategies to have the region marketable and attractive to international students.

The East African universities, through their caucus, are concerned that policies for achieving the joint efforts are not well publicised.

The varsity bosses say policies exist that can help accrediting institutions recognize degrees from any of the institutions in the region.

The Inter-University Council for East Africa says the aim is to promote regional integration "by increasing the mobility of students, staff and skills."

Already, a regional accreditation of programs is operational in the plan dubbed "the internationalization of universities".

The council has also developed guidelines for mainstreaming EAC ideas into the university curriculum, standards for postgraduate studies in East Africa, quality assurance handbooks, East African Qualifications Framework for Higher Education, and Recognition of Prior Learning Policy, and subject benchmarks.

The Nairobi meeting is expected to ratify an EAC Fees Structure model.

Prof Gaspard Banyankimbona, executive director of the IUCEA, said the efforts are to improve teaching quality, increase understanding of the East Africa unity, and contribute to the common higher education area.

"The grand question is, how can we improve the global competitiveness of our universities? And how do we ensure we maintain high standards while achieving these goals?" he said.

The council seeks to set unit costs for programs "that are competitive across the region."

"We must also work to ensure that higher education is accessible to all EAC citizens by harmonizing fees in local currencies," Banyankimbona said.

 "This initiative aims to harmonize our education systems, improve the recognition of qualifications and enhance mobility across the region".

The council chair said the region's universities have also developed a framework for promoting the recognition and harmonization of qualifications.

"We have also worked to increase mobility through initiatives like the EAC students mobility and scholarship scheme, with many universities already participating," Banyankimbona said.

He reported that many Kenyan universities have committed to the initiative.

The declaration for joint EAC common higher education area was signed by President William Ruto when he was still deputy president.

Ministry of Education Secretary Administration Fredrick Ndambuki, who represented PS Beatrice Inyangala, said Kenya will take up the challenge of championing the implementation of the common higher education area.

"This is a good initiative and we believe in it," he said.

Issues of which degrees are recognized in the country have played out many times.

There are also concerns that students from East Africa face challenges of being charged fees in US Dollars instead of the local currencies as was directed by the EAC council of ministers.

Ndambuki told the national sensitisation forum that the deliberations were not only relevant but were essential.

The declaration of EAC as a common area of higher education was made in 2017.

"It will address the challenges standing in our way," Ndambuki said, adding that "it is a pragmatic necessity for achieving deeper regional integration, and would help achieve free flow of knowledge, expertise and talents."

Commission on University Education CEO Prof Mike Kuria said the dream of EAC varsities coming together is to create mobility for students and lecturers.

"The dream is having an EAC common higher education area that can speak from a position of power. I invite VCs to take this up and see how we can lead in that area," Kuria said.

He suggested that varsities participate in EAC scholarship schemes as a way to realizing the internationalization of universities.

"It is aimed at having different cultures in our universities and pursue joint research collaboration on the problems that bedevil the EAC region," Kuria said.

"If we can pool our funds and bring heads together, we can achieve much."