Lilian Ochieng
12 June 2011
Nairobi — Kisumu has turned out to be too small for the several higher learning institutions targeting prospective students in the lakeside county.
What started as the setting up of one or two university campuses has turned into crowding.
With five public universities and several private ones establishing a firm presence in Kisumu’s town centre to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, space is running low.
Among the universities that have established campuses in the town over the past few years are Moi, Maseno, Nairobi, KCA University, and Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
Utalii College is reportedly set open a learning centre in the region in about two months. This will further stiffen the competition in higher education services in the region.
Late comers, so to speak, and those willing to expand further are already beginning to look toward neighbouring smaller towns.
The result? Fairly rural and formerly lethargic towns in neighbouring counties are suddenly hosting constituent colleges of universities.
Talk of ‘home delivery’ of academic studies.
Moi University has set up a campus in the small Yala town in Siaya County. Maseno recently gained entry into Homabay County, having established the appropriate institution to take over.
Odera Akang’o college in Siaya County is now a campus of Moi University after the signing of an agreement to hand it over to the vice chancellor of Moi University.
The universities cite various factors for their seemingly endless expansion in the region.
According to the vice-chancellor of Moi University, Professor Richard Mibeyi, the decision to establish a campus in Kisumu and its neighbouring counties was a “response to market needs”.
Thus, the handing over of the 40 million property that is Odera Akang’o college to Moi University is a result of growing demand and competition.
These are driving institutions of learning to deliver services as close as possible to the people.
Odera Akang’o campus, previously a high school owned by Professor Bethwel Ogot, was handed over to Moi University early this year in the presence of acting minister for Higher Education Professor Hellen Sambili, who promised to offer support in enhancing the services in the university.
The studies on offer in these new university campuses in Kisumu and neighbouring counties are varied.
From business and information technology to public health and education, the universities are offering an array of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses.
The new Moi University campus offers courses in education, business, sciences and social sciences.
And last month, Maseno University launched a new campus in Homa Bay. It is called Homa Hills Campus.
The trend, it appears, is not a passing cloud. While some universities are now buying land to further expand and anchor their presence in the region, others are buying existing buildings to convert them into campuses.
This is the path taken by Catholic University of Eastern Africa, which has converted a former high school into a campus.
In the past, the tertiary education in Kisumu was dominated by many middle level colleges, among them Kisumu Polytechnic.
But this is rapidly changing, and the only ‘indigenous’ university there – the Great Lakes University of Kisumu – has suddenly found itself surrounded by campuses of others.
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Continued here:
Universities Go Rural