A survey of quality management in collaboration strategy between public universities and tertiary colleges in Kenya
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Date
2013-01-25
Authors
Mbaya, Joyce Muthoni
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Abstract
In a bid to deal with the low enrolment to Kenya Public Universities, the Government of Kenya
Sought to provide university education by having double intakes in an academic year as well as
Taking over middle level colleges and polytechnics and converting them into universities issuing
degrees. These steps however weren't sufficient to increase enrolment of deserving students to
Universities. This has led to some public universities collaborating with private tertiary colleges
to further reach the students and offer degrees. Focusing on collaborations contribution to access
of higher education and quality, this survey was carried out on the quality management of the
collaboration strategy between public universities and tertiary colleges in Kenya. The objective
of the study was to examine the effect of quality management practices in collaborations, to
identify the facilities leading to collaborations and identification of the policy guidelines in
quality management in collaborations.
The study employed a descriptive design. The target population was public Universities and
Private colleges that have collaborated. Stratified sampling was used in the study to get a sample.
This resulted in getting a target of 64 elements. Of these, 54 responded and returned the
questionnaires constituting 84.3% response rate. This was a representative rate for sufficient
inference on the general population. The managers consisted of 25% of the target population,
the staff and lecturers 50% while the students consisted of 25% of the population. A structured
questionnaire with both open and closed questions was used as the main tool of data collection.
The data was analyzed using descriptive statistical methods and measures of central tendency.
From the findings, it became apparent that the principles and practices of quality. that is people
and relationships, continuous improvement (kaizen) and measures to quality maintenance are
practiced and there has not been evidence of adverse negative effects of the collaborations on
quality. Kaizen was found to exist below average. Quality- measures are however observed.
Following guidelines from the Commission of Higher Education on the ratio of lecturers to
students, the findings were that all ratios in the institutions were above the recommended ratio of
the commission. From observation however, the ratio is much higher than what was indicated by
the respondents.
It is recommended that policy makers provide policies on revenue sharing ratios, joint
management, take into account the global environment and incorporate Kenyan education system
measure up to global standards. Further, universities and other institutions of learning ought to be
registered by the Commission of Higher Education, which can rank the universities. On ratios,
there could be increase lecturers to balance the deficit, enforce class sizes in both public and
private institutions. Further, the use of both distance learning and E-learning can be used to
decrease the number of students to lecturers, but more lecturers would still be important to have
quality interaction of the distance learners and E-Iearners as well. Training on the management
of public and private collaborations can be implemented as well.
Description
Department of Business Administration, 54p. The LB 2341.8 .K4M33 2012
Keywords
Total quality management in higher education --Kenya, Quality assurance --Kenya, Quality assurance --Kenya Education, Higher --Kenya --University and colleges --Standards Thesis