School of Graduate Studies

USIU-Africa’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Paul Zeleza, presents a token of appreciation to keynote speaker, Prof. Peter Ngure of St. Paul’s University. Photo: Courtesy of SGSRE

By Elvis Odera
The Institute of Higher Education Leadership through the School of Graduate Studies Research and Extension held its first 2 day workshop on strengthening post- graduate supervision .The event was held at the Chandaria School of Business presided over by the Dean of School Science, Professor Valerie Adema.
The workshop sought to address the teething issues facing graduate supervision in Kenyan universities. During the opening remarks, the Vice-chancellor of USIU-Africa, Professor Zeleza, noted that around 73% of faculty in USIU-Africa had obtained a Ph.D., more than the national average which is below 50%. He highlighted the need for mentorship in graduate supervision to break the formal and academic barriers that make supervision challenging.
Prof. Jackson Too of the Commission for University Education noted that there was an alarming student to faculty ratio in universities in Kenya, which made graduate supervision challenging. He proposed that universities ought to review their program intakes to avoid admitting more students than they can handle. Of concern was the need to guide graduate students to start publishing academic papers as soon as they reached the methodology stage. This would eliminate the rush to publish papers months to completion of the degree which may tempt students to publish in predatory journals. The event is a first of a series of workshops/events organized by IHERLD to strengthen higher education and leadership in universities.