Equity dimensions in public university education in Kenya: an analysis of parallel and regular undergraduate platforms
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Date
2011-05-01
Authors
Otieno, Mary Akinyi
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Abstract
The rapid expansion of university education in Kenya has necessitated inevitable reconfigurations and innovations in access and finance issues. Part of this is evident in the high demand for university education that has seen the mounting of alternative platforms variously called parallel, self-sponsored or module 11. As of necessity, such developments come with inevitable consequences, including altering the pattern of access by socio-economic groups as well as gender, in as much as they engender institutional differentiation manifested in the appropriation of private funds, occasioned by differential enrolment of paying students. The dualistic admission policy has the potential of engendering inequalities among social groups, gender and between institutions, principally because, by `liberalising' education, it opens up university admission to those students able to pay the fees. This poses a threat to equitable distribution of education opportunities in public universities. It is for this reason that the current study investigated the equity issues in Kenya's public university system since the mounting of the parallel platform, to identify equity dimensions evident in the provision of public university education in the parallel and regular undergraduate degree platforms on the basis of socio-economic status, gender equity, degree programmes equity and institutional equity. The study was carried out in three public universities namely: University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University and Moi University. The target population was 61,115 and the sample size was 748. The sample size was derived from Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) Tables for determining appropriate sample size given a specified population. Purposive sampling was used to select 40 university administrative staff and another 8 respondents from eight organisations referred to in this study as (education experts/policy makers). Two types of research instruments were used: interview guide and questionnaires. Questionnaires were administered to public university students and academic staff while interview guide was administered to the education policy makers (education experts) as university administrators, CHE, MoEST, JAB staff, World Bank, KIPPRA, Rockefeller, IPAR and Ford Foundation. Data analysis for this study was done both quantitatively and qualitatively. Chi Square statistical analysis was used in this study to compare frequencies occurring in different groups such as students, public university administrative and academic staff, including policy makers and education experts in university education on the four variables for the study. In line with the study objectives, six hypotheses were designed for this study and the results generated made the study findings, viz; Five objectives were investigated and the results indicated that there were differences in enrolment across gender by platform, that distributions of regular students by gender in the three public universities in the two (MI & MII) study platforms differed significantly, that students from the more affluent families (middle and high SES) dominated positions on the MII platforms, that irrespective of gender, the students' presence in any platform is determined by their parents/guardian/family SES, however gender on its own cannot determine a student's presence in either MI or MIL Furthermore, being female from lower SES diminished a student's chances of participating in pure science based programmes in public university education. While the socio-economic status of a female student's family would influence preference of the degree programme pursued, the same conclusion is not true for male students. The study concludes that there is a persistent gap in university education participation, between students from richer and poorer family backgrounds and recommends instituting gender equity structures by JAB and the government of Kenya
Description
Department of Educational Administration, Planning and Curriculum Development, 205p. The LB 2351.48.K4O81 2009
Keywords
Universities and colleges, Equity, Educational equalization, Education higher