On Thursday President William Ruto launched the Open University of Kenya, a game-changer in the higher learning programme that has been in the works for decades.
The OUK is touted to herald a new dawn in the enhancement and access to affordable and quality education in the country as the government seeks to deliver a 100 per cent transition to university.
President Ruto said his administration is keen on offering competitive and industry-driven education, aligned with the government’s economic transformation agenda.
The country's first virtual public university was awarded a charter and will be based at the Konza Technopolis, Machakos.
But what is an Open University?
This is a virtual learning institution that offers learners an opportunity to study from the comfort of their homes or workplaces.
According to UNESCO, open or self-paced learning is "an educational philosophy where learning can happen anywhere, anytime from any resource, and therefore, can also inform practice in face-to-face institutions".
The Open University of Kenya embraces the concept of distance learning where students access physical classes regardless of their location.
Unlike other universities which have entry requirements, open universities tend to accept students irrespective of their age or educational background.
The flexibility will provide learning opportunities for individuals engaged in regular work or geographically dispersed.
The course content can be pre-prepared and presented in modules in print or electronic form. Also, students can follow live lectures virtually using various electronic gadgets.
How the open university works
It has its origins in learning by correspondence when students would be sent course content by post and then also send back assignments through the same medium.
The interaction between the students and the lecturers is currently made easier by technology and there is little difference between conventional and open universities.
Open learning has been touted as an affordable way of making education accessible to many people by breaking geographical barriers.
It takes into account learners' limitations and preferences in that there is flexibility in the number of units one wishes to study depending on their availability and financial strength.
How the open university idea was born
Mainstreaming of distance learning, as a means to increase access to higher education, had been underdeveloped and underfunded in Kenya, despite the establishment of the African Virtual University in 1997.
The establishment of an open university was proposed as a means to break conventional barriers and provide opportunities for more Kenyans to access university education.
Kenyan Open University had been considered in various policy documents and reports, with a focus on providing opportunities for those who qualify through the formal system but are unable to secure places in traditional universities.
It started with the development of a Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2005.
The paper was titled, A Policy Framework Education, Training and Research; Meeting the Challenges of Education, Training and Research in Kenya in the 21st Century.
This was followed further through the Report of the Public Universities Inspection Board (2007), the National Strategy for University Education (2008) and the Road Map for Open University (Rumble Report 2008).
In 2011, the Blue Print Report for the Open University contained recommendations from the CUE that highlighted priority academic fields for the envisioned open university.
On January 9 2014, then Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi appointed a task force on the open university.
It was chaired by Prof Peter Erastus Kinyanjui. The members were Dr Guantai Mboroki, Dr Joyce Agalo, Dr Speranza Ndege, Dr Henry Rono, Jeckoniah Odumbe, Dr Judith W. Kamau, Julius Otieno and Rispa Odongo.
The Cabinet approved the proposal to establish a national open university in August 2016 but that remained a dream until this year.
The Technical Working Committee of the OUK which was chaired by Professor Ezra Maritim submitted its progress report to the Cabinet Secretary on May 26 2023.
Open University of Kenya programmes
President William Ruto announced that the cost of the six pioneer programmes at the new university will cost half the fees charged in other public universities.
The six undergraduate degree programmes are:
Bachelor of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics
Bachelor of Data Science
Bachelor of Technology Education
Bachelor of Science in business and Entrepreneurship
Bachelor of Economics and Statistics
Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Food Security.
The university will also offer two graduate degrees in leadership and accountability and learning design and teaching.
The Open University is now the 42nd public university in the country and will admit its first cohort in September.
Management of OUK
Unlike other conventional public universities, the President appointed the chair of the council.
He also appointed Equity Group MD James Mwangi as the Chancellor of the University.
The vice chancellor will be appointed by the Education CS on the recommendation of the council.
The rest of the structure of the OUK will take the form of conventional universities.
The university was allocated Sh270 million in the 2022-23 national budget where Sh20 million was in the printed estimates and Sh250 million in Supplementary I.
The funds were for setting up the OUK including curriculum development and construction at Konza.