List of Universities Risking Shutdown in Ministry of Education’s Proposal

The Ministry of Education is proposing a temporary license limiting upcoming universities to eight years of operation failure to which the institutions will risk being shut down.

The proposal targets amending the university’s Act of 2012 where the Ministry requires all newly established universities to have an interim authority letter which is a temporary license renewed after four years for all higher learning institutions that meet the set criteria by the Ministry.

The proposal that is likely to see universities running on Interim licenses for over eight years without renewing licensing was presented to the parliamentary Education Committee at the end of August 2019.

The proposal was first suggested in public by former education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i in 2017 when he suggested that all universities that run on temporary licenses for more than eight years be shut.

The Matiang’i proposal was, however, not implemented and the proposal presented before the Parliamentary committee has now revived the debate that could see a number of universities lose their licenses.

The Parliamentary Committee chairman, Julius Melly, noted that the proposal would ensure institutions conform to regulations within the set duration unlike previously.

The proposal, if passed into law, will see the responsibility to see it implemented fall onto the current Education Cabinet Secretary’s George Magoha.

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As to date, 14 universities are running on temporary license according to information from the Commission of University Education.

Below is a list of universities that risk closure if the proposal is passed into law:

• Aga Khan University- Been operating for the last 17 years
• Presbyterian University
• Kiriri Women University
• Gretsa University
• East Africa University
• Management University of Africa
• Pioneer International University
• Riara University

Universities whose licenses could still be valid since their licenses were handed to them after the year 2012 are as listed below:

• Zetech University
• Lukenya University
• UMMA University
• International Leadership University
• Amref University
• RAF University

Despite a directive by CUE in 2017 for students not to be placed in Kiriri Women’s University of Science and Technology, East African University, and Gretsa University to allow the institutions time to put their houses in order, the directive was overlooked.