This is a two-part volume on how public and private universities in Kenya are confronting the reform of their institutions in the context of our decades of rapid growth of the higher education sector as a whole.

The book contains an introduction by Professor Kilemi Mwiria, Assistant Minister of Education in Kenya, which provides an update on developments in Kenya since January 2003 when a new government took power in a peaceful electoral transition that rejected one-party rule. The volume reviews the history of higher education in Kenya and details the recent emergence of private universities, most of them with a Christian religious orientation, as major players in the provision of tertiary-level education.  Both parts of the volume emphasize widening access to higher education at the same time as ensuring equity.  They detail how both the public and private institutions wrestle with questions of tuition costs and delivering a curriculum that meets the needs of students and of Kenya’s economy. Kenya scholars were commissioned by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa to carry out the studies, using a methodology that incorporates feedback from the institutions and involving a broad range of stakeholders. 

For the private universities, the Ford Foundation funded a group of young scholars as a way of encouraging first-rate work from younger researchers.
James Currey                                     E.A.E.P
OXFORD                                           NAIROBI
www.jamescurrey.co.uk                    www.eastafricanpublishers.com

You can also download the pdf or request for have limited copies available for distribution at http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/

Related Publications
Change and Transformation in Ghana's Publicly Funded Universities
Gender in the making of a Nigierian University system