Education and Vocational Training minister Prof Jumanne Maghembe, yesterday criticised East African Community (EAC) partner states over university tuition fees.
He said although the five countries in the regional bloc, had agreed to have uniform university entrance fees, only Tanzania has implemented the directive.
“We (Tanzania) have facilitated this, but the agreement has not been reciprocated by the other four partner states,“ he said when he opened the ninth annual general meeting of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA).
He said having uniform fees for all universities in the region, would increase mobility of students seeking education across the borders and hence foster the EA cooperation spirit.
Prof Maghembe, however, could not clarify what is the agreed standard fees for university students in the region and whether they covered both public and private universities.
Reliable sources close to IUCEA, an intergovernmental mandated institution to enhance collaboration among universities in EA, said higher education was more expensive in Kenya than in the other four partner states. For instance, out of the total student population of 36,000 at the Makerere University in Uganda, at least 25 per cent are from Kenya, while those from Tanzania are estimated to be about 200.
Currently, there are over 75 universities in the entire EA region from hardly 10 some 20 years ago and only three -Makerere, University of Dar es Salaam and University of Nairobi in 1970 when IUCEA was set up.
Prof Maghembe said student mobility within the region has increased tremendously in recent years “hence creating the need to institute mechanisms for comparability of the quality of education in EA universities.“ The target, he argued, should be to ensure academic programmes offered in the higher institutions of learning were of “international standards“ since education has become a tradable commodity across the borders.
He called on the universities to strike a strategic partnership with industry as well as invest heavily in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for better performance.
“Failure to embrace ICT will lead to increased exclusion from global education forums, thereby widening further the gap that exists between our region and the developed world,“ he pointed out. He also expressed concern on the inadequate infrastructure and research tools in most of the university campuses in the region, calling on policy makers in ministries responsible for higher education, to address the anomaly.
Earlier, Prof Chacha Nyaigoti Chacha, the IUCEA executive secretary, said efforts were underway to harmonise university education in the region to enable students to move to other university with their credits.
He added that the council was striving hard to ensure that academic staffs were highly motivated so that they are retained to serve in the region rather than absconding to work elsewhere.
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