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Published: 19 April 2022

In October 2018, the Commission for University Education (CUE) embarked on the process of automating its systems to promote CUE’s capacity to undertake its mandate and improve efficiency by providing a flexible, secure, scalable and high-performance integrated information management system. The new system is envisioned to eliminate duplication of effort and allow sharing of information and improvement of service delivery across the subsector.
The process spearheaded by Dynasoft Business Solutions Limited, a consultancy firm leading information system solutions that seeks to automate and align ICT with the customer’s business strategy is set for completion in the next three months.

The Commission has already automated some of key of its processes and modules. They include:

1. Universities data collection module - this module provides a framework for CUE to collect and aggregate data from all universities in Kenya, that is pertinent to CUE’s role as a regulator of university education. The system has been rolled out to universities who are CUE’s key stakeholders.
2. Universities data collection module - this module provides a framework for CUE to collect and aggregate data from all universities in Kenya, that is pertinent to CUE’s role as a regulator of university education. The system has been rolled out to universities who are CUE’s key stakeholders.
3. System administration module - this module allows selected CUE staff to manage the proposed system. It includes but not be limited to management of users, user roles and responsibilities, rights and permissions, archival, automated backups (local and remote), restore and rollbacks. The Quality Assurance module, which automates key aspects of quality assurance in university education, include but not limited to:
   • Accreditation (licensing) of universities and academic programmes offered;
   • Quality audit of universities and the academic programmes offered;
   • Recognition and Equation of Qualifications; and ;
   • Accreditation of Student Recruitment Agencies.
4. Supply Chain Management module – this module automates the processes of procurement planning and execution, including but not limited to vendor management, purchase and stores requisitions, purchase approvals, inventory management, document management, contracts & service level agreements management, e-procurement reports and related processes;
5. Finance module – in this module, the successful bidder is expected to migrate data and module functionality from an existing Financial management system (Sage Pastel Evolution ) running on an SQL Server database, into the proposed system;
6. Human Resources & Payroll management module – Under this component, the successful bidder is expected to migrate data and module functionality from an existing Human Resources and Payroll management system running on an Oracle database, into the proposed system;

An image of CUE staff attending a sensitization workshop in Naivasha in February 2022.

Other modules that are in the process of automation include: Transport management module, Legal processes management module, Total quality management module and Customer relationship management module.

The Transport management module will enable CUE to keep record of all its vehicles including static details, movement, insurance, fuel management, maintenance, accident, drivers, and bookings while the Legal processes management module will allow CUE to keep record of cases and related legal matters.

The Total quality management module will allow CUE to manage ISO processes, annual work planning and monitoring of Government Performance Contract targets while the Customer relationship management module will enable CUE to support stakeholders by collecting and resolving queries, support requests and complaints.

Mr. Joseph Musyoki, the Chairman of the Project Implementation Committee, said the project implementation period will be lapsing in July 2022 during which time all modules are expected to have gone live.

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Published: 11 January 2022

The Commission for University Education Board member, Prof. Anne Muigai, is among global geneticists who came up with the recent ground-breaking recommendations on human genome editing.

As the first Kenyan female professor of genetics, Prof. Muigai has won the hearts of research scientists and global institutions for her immense contribution on the subject.

On 14th December 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) established a global multi- disciplinary expert panel to examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges associated with human genome editing (both somatic and germ cell) following the successful delivery of twin girls as a result of gene-editing by Chinese scientist He Jiankui. The girls turned three years in November 2021.

Prof. Muigai was among the 18-member Expert Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing. She was the only Kenyan representative in the committee.

The committee was tasked to advise and make recommendations on appropriate institutional, national, regional and global governance mechanisms for human genome editing.

During the course of its work, the committee reviewed the current literature on human genome editing research and its applications, considered existing proposals for governance and relevant ongoing initiatives, and gathered information on a range of topics relating to the different uses of this technology.

“It was a great honor for me to serve on this committee, which resulted in a governance framework, a position paper and our recommendations," noted Prof. Muigai in a scholarly journal titled Expanding global access to genetic therapies https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587- 021-01191-0 that was published on 7th January, 2022.

The Commission Secretary/CEO Prof. Mwenda Ntarangwi commended Prof Muigai for her exemplary achievement and noted that this was not only a milestone to the Commission but also to the university sub-sector which plays a key role in research and innovations.

“We are proud of our Board member for leading by example and appreciate her role in the Committee that made fruitful deliberations on the task given,” said Prof. Ntarangwi.

“Her achievement is a milestone to us as university regulator given the fact that universities are required by law to promote research and scholarly publishing and as such, CUE was established to ensure that institutions of higher learning meet the highest standards in the areas by identifying research gaps and to set aside adequate financial resources to meet their research obligations”, said Prof. Ntarangwi.

Prof. Muigai sits in the Commission Board as a representative of public universities and currently works at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

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Published: 10 March 2020

The university education sub-sector continues to experience massive transformation locally and globally. Student numbers are growing as are institutions. Despite the challenges that come with such growth, however, university education is still a top priority for many individuals today. In
reviewing the strides and milestones of the university sub-sector today, the Commission for University Education (CUE) recently entered into a partnership with the Standard Group Limited to share with stakeholders through a quarterly journal dubbed STATE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN KENYA some of their innovations and solutions to the development of thecountry’s national agenda. The first issue was published on 1st August,2020. 

The objectives of the journal included:

1. Educate and inform potential students and the public at large about the programmes available in our local universities;

2. Foster university-industry partnerships;

3. Emphasize the research and innovations being undertaken universities;

4. Explore questions of funding universities; and ;

5. Inter-university transfer procedures and mode of online teaching, among others.

The next journal will be published in December, 2020.Please find the link to the recently published journal on the State of University Education in
Kenya

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Published: 05 March 2020

From Left: Commission Secretary and CEO Prof. Mwenda Ntarangwi, CUE Chairman Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha and Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha during the launch of 2019-2023 CUE  Strategic Plan.

On 21st February 2020 education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha officially launched the CUE Strategic plan for the period 2019-2023 and called upon universities to work together with the Commission to achieve quality university education.
Prof. Magoha spoke during the final validation workshop on universities Regulations at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). The one day event brought together Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors of universities, principals of constituent university colleges, professional bodies’ representatives, Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), private sector and student recruitment agencies representatives along with Commission board members and management.
“You should not always perceive CUE as an adversary but rather as an organization for the betterment of our universities,” Prof. Magoha told Varsity stakeholders.
The Education CS challenged the Commission to develop a midterm review plan of the Strategic Plan for easier implementation of its objectives.

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha displays a copy to CUE strategic Plan to University stakeholders gathering at KICD.  Looking on are CUE Board Chairman Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha (standing) and Commission Secretary and CEO Prof. Mwenda Ntarangwi.

In welcoming the CS to launch the Plan, the Commission Board Chairman Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha said the strategic plan outlines the strategic direction for the Commission in the next five years. He added that the Plan provides policy guidelines on issues of quality, access, relevance and equity.

“Through the achievement of its vision, the Commission will employ a collaborative approach to ensure that outcomes are informed by the views of stakeholders. The Plan therefore is an operational paradigm shift towards tackling critical issues and challenges in university education as well as playing the critical role in achieving national development goals,” Prof. Chacha noted.
While providing a summary of the Strategic Plan, the Commission Secretary and CEO Prof. Mwenda Ntarangwi said that the Strategic Plan is centered on students who are CUE’s key stakeholders. 
Prof. Ntarangwi assured the stakeholders that the Strategic Plan will ensure a well-regulated sub-sector focused on student success and attainment of set goals in priority areas such as relevance, capacity building and equity which will help make Kenyan university education globally competitive.

CUE Board members from Left: Commissioners Dr. Elizabeth Muli, Senior Counsel Lucy Kambuni, Prof. Anne Muigai and Eng. David Onyango at a stakeholder’s workshop in KICD.

Prof. Mwenda also assured the stakeholders that the Commission will deploy its resources to ensure that the performance targets set out will be met through realigning the organizational structure, ensuring effective communication between CUE and stakeholders as well as by continuously improving CUE’s monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to support successful execution of the plan.

The Strategic Plan consists of five chapters that articulate the Commission’s role in the national and international development agenda and the strategies it will put in place to ensure that its goals are achieved. Chapter one of the plan gives the background of the Commission, its mandate and role in the achievement of national and international development agenda. It also outlines the challenges facing the University sub-sector in Kenya and the rationale for the development of the strategic plan 2019-2023.
The second chapter gives a synopsis of the Commissions achievements in implementing the previous strategic plan, an analysis of the Commission’s internal and external environment using the SWOT, PESTEL analysis and stakeholder mapping to identify stakeholder expectations. These first two chapters give an insight into the environment in which the Commission is operating and its mandate so as to come up with suitable strategies for the actualization of its goals. Chapter three outlines the strategy model of the Commission by defining the vision, mission core values, key result areas and strategic objectives.
In order to achieve its vision and mission during the plan period, the Commission strategic focus will be driven by four key result areas namely: quality assurance; strategy, policy and research; corporate positioning; and institutional capacity. These key result areas will be achieved through the following eight (8) strategic objectives: re-engineering quality assurance processes; enhancing quality monitoring of universities; providing evidence based policy advisories; promoting corporate image and branding; institutionalizing the use of ICT; enhancing human resource management; enhancing resource mobilization and financial management; and enhancing the institutional planning.
Chapter four illustrates how the Commission will coordinate the implementation of the plan. The Chapter illustrates how the Commission will position itself using its optimal human resource needs and financial resources required to implement the plan. In addition, risks affecting the process have been identified, categorized and their mitigating measures put in place. Finally, chapter five outlines the monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework that will be used to track progress, assess outcomes and the impact of implementing this plan
All participants at the meeting received a copy of the Strategic Plan.