MKU sharpens focus on graduate training, increase research funds

Mount Kenya University has launched the Graduate Studies Centre of Excellence and at the same time increased allocation of funds for research by faculty as it seeks to sharpen its focus on masters and PhD students.

Prof Simon Gicharu, chairman MKU board of directors, said the university would increase the research grants to Sh30 million up from Sh20 million.

The kitty is meant to support staff working with postgraduate students  in undertaking research and dissemination of findings through publications.

“We created and established the Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation grant of Sh20 million every year. This year, we are increasing the VC’s grant from Sh20 million to Sh30 million and hopefully next year, we will increase it to Sh40 million,” he said.

He spoke on Thursday when the university launched its Graduate Studies Centre of Excellence that is expected to enable the university to strengthen its postgraduate training, by offering quality programmes and fast tracking students' academic progression.

In doing so, the university strictly adheres to the Commission on University Education regulations for postgraduate training.

“If an undergraduate student can finish within eight semesters, why would a masters student take more than four semesters for a two year programme?” posed Dr Karenga, the director, Graduate Studies.

“The university is cognisant of the support given by our supervisors and examiners. The university has revised rates for payment of supervisors and examiners to facilitate and motivate them in the supervision and examination process” Prof Gicharu said. 

He added that the university is committed to set aside resources to remain competitive in postgraduate training.

The university said it would now heavily focus on graduate studies, noting that Kenya is in need of specialists across different economic sectors.  

“It is time now more than ever before, that MKU has opened a new frontier for training seriously desired human resources at the postgraduate level. Graduate training seeks to produce experts in various specialisations for the good of humanity,” said MKU Pro Chancellor Dr Vincent Gaitho.

“The launch of MKU Centre of Excellence for Graduate Studies is a testimony of the commitment of the university to support the many students wishing to progress their studies. MKU is committed to adhering to best practices in graduate training that is not only timeline managed but more so quality oriented.”

“Every effort shall be made to appreciate the role of supervisors and examiners engaged to support students. The centre, which shall be managed under a Directorate of Graduate Studies, has been challenged to ensure that MKU becomes the destination for graduate studies in Kenya and the region.”

The centre is also expected to help graduate students save on resources usually spent whenever they take lengthy periods to complete their studies. The university said it would however allow students longer periods depending on circumstances.

The institution said it had developed a semester-based programme guide to assist students undertake coursework as well as start research early enough. This is so that they are able to complete their programmes on time.  With the guide, you are well informed of which milestones to complete by when.  

“We have achieved a lot. We have streamlined our processes that have made it easy for students to start their masters programmes, they have access to resources to enable them carry out research and adequate supervisors to enable them complete their programmes on time,” said Prof Deogratius Jaganyi, Vice Chancellor MKU.

“We have a huge number of students completing their course work but not completing the dissertation."

We are coming up with a framework whereby we are going to incorporate the project aspect within the semester, which means to spread out the teaching to go to the very end, and start the research at a much earlier stage so that we do not lose the post graduate student along the way.