Skip to main content

Structures supporting Idleness of a Regular KU Student

As I promised earlier, here is the follow up to the article on the idle life of a university student. I have a lot of time to do it, still been an idle student, and given that am on a forced holiday after Kenyatta University was indefinitely closed.

As we saw earlier, a degree course takes 8 semesters to complete, and in KU it takes 4 years to complete 8 semesters, or lets put it at 3 and a half years.  For those who join a private university, it will take 2.5 years to complete the same 8 semesters. This is despite a KU semester been 4 weeks short of a standard 14 week semester.  This difference is brought about by the arrangement of the KU calendar. This calendar is arranged as shown below:

First Regular Semester – 3 months

School Based Session (as Regular students are on a one month holiday) - 1 month           

Second Regular Semester- 3 months

School Based Session (Regular students on 5 month long holiday)- 1 month

Trimester (For those regular students who can afford; Regular student still on holiday)- 3 months

School Based Session (Regular students still on holiday)-1 month

 

So as you see above, the university calendar is conveniently arranged to make sure that a regular student is quite idle. Now a question is why the professors behind the management of the university would like to make sure an active youth remains that idle.

Let us look at the students who make up the university.

1.       The Regular student is the original student, that the university was started with them in mind, and have existed there as long as the university. This students have bout 2/3 of their fee footed by the government and foot the rest, and are eligible for Higher Education Loans Board(HELB) Loans. The regular students are selected into the university by the Joint Admission Board(JAB) and their admission is pegged on bed spaces available in the campus hostels(plus other facilities)

2.       School Based Students- after several years of operation of the university, the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the university came up with a way of upgrading School teachers who had diplomas to degrees through the program known as school based. The School Based program is mainly run such that learning is mostly done at home, with a few weeks on campus for follow up, Continuous Assessment Tests and Exams. They foot their fee by themselves, and pay a higher sum than regular students.

3.       Parallel  Students- These program was started after the number of qualifying students(qualifying been those that got above C in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education) been cut off by the pegging of admission to bed spaces became considerably high. Also, the JAB selection was competitive, thus the lower grade a student scored, the lesser  the chance of that student qualifying for a course that they actually wanted to do. The JAB selection resulted into many students doing courses they did not like in the first place. The parallel students were incorporated as sort of day scholars, hence their admission was not pegged on bed spaces, rather on the number the university facilities could support. Since these students were not government sponsored, they had to foot their entire fee. Their fee also happened to be a little higher than that of the regular students.

4.       Open Learning Students- This is a re-implementation of the school based program, but targeting other professionals other than teachers. The fees structuring and academic structure is done in the same way as that of the school based.

As seen from above, it is financially attractive for the university to run the non-regular programs. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in the university structuring its academic calendar in favor of these programs.

These has been done to such an extent that the not financially attractive regular semesters are 4 weeks short of a regular 14 week semester, in order to create space for the school based sessions.  

Another dimension of this is the way a parallel student is admitted. The regular student joins the university during the first regular semester. The parallel student can join the university during the first regular semester, the second regular semester or even the trimester. This is ok, but it presents one problem. 

Some units are broken down into components.  Example of such a unit is Calculus, which starts at Calculus 1, Calculus 2, etc.  Suppose a student is supposed take Calculus 1 up to Calculus 4. Each unit is offered in one and only one of the two regular semesters.  Therefore Calculus 1 and 3 will be offered in semester one while calculus 2 and 4 in semester two.  A regular students and a parallel student reporting in semester one will take the units in the order Calculus 1- Calculus 2- Calculus 3- Calculus 4. A parallel student reporting in the second regular semester will do them in the order Calculus 2- Calculus 1 – Calculus 4 – calculus 3. This is because the student will be taking the second semester of an year before the first semester of the same year, therefore resulting in this strange anomaly.

As we hope the university students and lecturers are able to complete its coursework in the 10 week semesters, lets also hope that they are able to offer quality education for the school based and open learning students who too, given that it’s the same set of lecturers who handle all this students.

The university meanwhile tells us that it continues to offer quality (and perhaps affordable) education. This, it tells us, is the focus of the university, not the millions that they stand to make from non regular students.  And guys, that is why the regular university student is quite idle. The government is also showing quite a lot of interest in abolishing the parallel student program, and absorbing all its students into the regular scheme. 

 

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RE: Appointment as Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to The United States of America

Image: South African marriage courtesy The Telegraph ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/6237922/South-African-man-marries-4-women-at-same-ceremony.html  ) Dennis Kioko, Address Pending. President to-be-elect, Republic of Kenya, Address Pending, Again. Dear Sirs/Madams, RE: Appointment as Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya to The United States of America  I would like to draw your attention to news reported across various sections of the press (way behind your daily portraits on the front page) that several Missions to the country are equivalently vacant with the duty of appointed high commissioners having expired. This includes Kenya's High Commission to the United States of America. Among your first duties, having assumed duty as Kenya's president, duly elected or otherwise, will be to appoint commissioners to these missions. It is in this regard that I highly invoke you to consider me as a likely appointment to the

Nairobi's Top 4 Texas Brisket Places Reviewed and Ranked

Brisket on a bed of roast vegetables with barbecue sauce at Texas Brisket, Kikuyu  This review has been updated after a number of you suggested I try the brisket at County2County.  What's the best place to have Brisket in Nairobi? What's even brisket?  Brisket is one of the toughest cuts in a cow, from around the belly. It is so tough that it has to be smoked for about 16 hours to tenderise. But that there, is the catch.  12 to 16 hours later, it is the most flavourful and softest cut you will ever have. So full of flavour and so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers.  However, due to the long cooking time involved, only a few places offer brisket in Nairobi.  The best so far is Texas Brisket which is located within Kikuyu Railway station.  They do the meat for a proper 16 hours, and will usually have a fatty or non-fatty portion. The fatty portions are more tasty. A 500 gram serving goes for KSh. 900 and a 1 KG order comes with a serving of free fries. Their brisket has

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here .  Peroni - One of the best beers in Kenya. Did a taste of canned and bottled Italian, and bottled Tanzanian I like the tangy flavour and body in Tanzanian Peroni. The can is close. Heineken drinkers will like the Italian one.  I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs,  I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every hangover you get

Lusaka and Livingstone Zambia to Namibia By Road

Zambia is a pretty large country,  an exciting one and with no shortage of potholes.  For instance, take the direct route from Lusaka - Livingstone to Namibia through the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo border crossing. Typically, roads are either good or tend to have potholes here and there. However, the last 120 kilometres of the Livingstone to Sesheke/Katima Mulilo route are best described as potholes dotted by some road here and there for the just thirty kilometres past Kazungula town, which is also the Zambia - Botswana border crossing.  Trying to drive to Sesheke is so bad it will take you anywhere between 4 hours to 6 hours to navigate those 100 kilometres. You may or may not have your dignity at the end and your vehicle may be in more than one piece.  If you really must use the Sesheke - Katima Mulilo crossing as of December 2022, then take the 900 kilometre longer detour from Lusaka to Mongu then back to Katima Mulilo. It doesn't guarantee you absence of potholes, but at least the

Kenyan products: The art of punishing your consumer

This post was written in 2011. Facts may have and indeed have changed - but the conclusion has not.  Dormans instant coffee tastes better than Sasini instant coffee. Ramtons electronics are manufactured for Kenya's Hypermart Limited, yet maintain a high product quality Peanut butter used to taste so good, but you could not afford it on the pocket money that you got back in school. A few years later, you have your first real job and your first "disposable" income. You buy your first real tub of peanut butter, probably the first in your life. You feel proud that Dominion peanut butter is manufactured in Ruiru, a town that you visited in your campus days to withdraw your pocket money, it was the nearest bank ATM to your campus.  This was before Equity bank became a mainstream bank and decided to open an ATM in your campus, and before M-Pesa meant that you