Assessment of Trends in Higher Education Needs in Kenya

Abstract

The need for quality and relevant tertiary education is much more urgent now than ever. This is occasioned by the advancement of society’s agenda for social, economic, technological, and moral development. The study was designed to assess the tertiary education needs of the youth in Kenya, analyse the state of students’ college education financing in tertiary institutions, establish the status of the quality of facilities in tertiary level educational institutions, establish the ability of college education to address skills required for youth employability, collate the views of participants on the incorporation of value based education in tertiary institutions, and establish the responsiveness of college education to challenges related to global megatrends. The mixed-method approach was adopted to guide the study to cater to its qualitative and quantitative aspects. The participants of the study included college students (350), graduates (125), and educators (49). Students were sampled using systematic random sampling while college educators and graduates were sampled using snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The findings revealed growing trends in the shift in career choices for more practical and solution-based courses for the contemporary generation of young people. Financing education remains a major challenge for many college students. Education offered in many tertiary colleges inadequately addresses the challenges caused by global megatrends and the integration of value-based education in their curricular offerings. The overall quality of the institutions in the region was found not to be competitive by the global practice.