Universities will cease to offer certificates or diploma courses if a bill seeking to amend the Universities Act, 2012, becomes law.
The Universities Amendment Bill 2023, currently in its second reading at the National Assembly, proposes that certificates and diploma courses be limited to Technical, Vocational Education and Training TVET Institutions to help increase enrolment in the tertiary institutions.
“The principal object of this Bill is to amend the Universities Act, 2012, to end the practice of universities offering certificate and diploma courses. This is informed by the fact that currently there are two bodies certifying certificate and diploma courses, that is, the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority for technical and vocational colleges and the Commission for University Education for the universities. This leads to inconsistencies in the content and duration of the courses”, part of the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons reads.
The bill states that universities are primarily institutions of higher learning and academic research and should therefore focus on degree and postgraduate programmes as opposed to certificate and diploma courses.
According to the proposed amendment, technical and vocational education and training institutions have continued to record low enrolment despite significant government investment.
The Bill argues that limiting universities to higher-level programmes would help strengthen enrolment in these institutions.
Postgraduate studies
Additionally, Clause 2 of the Bill proposes to amend section 5 of the Act to provide that the function of the Commission for University Education will be to recognise and equate postgraduate certificates and postgraduate diplomas conferred by foreign universities and institutions as opposed to basic certificates and diplomas.
Clause 4 also proposes to amend section 20 of the Act to provide that universities may offer postgraduate certificate and postgraduate diploma courses and not basic certificate and diploma courses.
Further, the clause provides for the saving of a student already undertaking a certificate or diploma course to enable such a student to complete his or her studies.
Clause 5 of the Bill proposes to amend section 38 of the Act to provide that a chancellor of a university may only award postgraduate certificate and postgraduate diploma courses and not basic certificate and diploma courses.
The Amendment Bill has elicited mixed reactions, with a section of lawmakers saying universities have infrastructural capacity and should be allowed to continue offering the courses.
