The varsity’s acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Elijah Omwenga said the new courses were already being offered to students across the world. They included eight professional development courses and ten degree courses.
He expressed confidence that the new programs would help increase the OUK’s students population to thousands. The current population, he said was slightly above 3, 000, those earlier enrolled in the varsity’s seven flagship programs.
Omwenga said eighteen more new courses were in the pipeline and would be unveiled soon once their developments are complete.
“Today is an exciting day for us because we have launched several new courses which we will use to increase our enrolment and meet the market demands,” Omwenga said.
He said the launched programs were of two categories: eight short courses that last for about five months and long ones.
The eight short professional development courses include Accountability Fundamentals, Business Modelling for Entrepreneurs, Corporate Governance, E – Learning Essentials for Online Engagement, Emotional Intelligence, Gender and Diversity, Mental Health Awareness and Online Assessment.
“These are short courses that we believe will help us develop capacity for the people outside there to address various emerging issues. The E-Learning Essentials course for instance, not only requires lecturers at the OUK, but we believe all lecturers teaching in any university, including tertiary institutions, need it,” Omwenga said.
The new programs and professional courses were unveiled at the university domiciled at the Konza Technopolis City on Monday.
Omwenga said the event marked a significant milestone in their commitment to providing accessible, affordable, flexible and high-quality education.
“Some of these courses are offered free at our university, while others you pay Sh10,000 only to go through them. Free ones include business modeling for entrepreneurs and mental health awareness,” he said.
The don said by offering Business Modelling for Entrepreneurs course free of charge, they spar growth in economic sector and as well contribute to a better mental health in the society through Mental Health Awareness as the varsity’s Corporate Social Responsibility.
The other programmes launched are courses ranging from undergraduate, masters, to PhD.
“We already have seven programs that were launched at the beginning of the chatter of this university on August 3, 2023 when it was officially launched by President William Ruto. We have so far enrolled over 3, 000 students undertaking the seven courses,” Omwenga said.
Omwenga said the ten new courses include; Bachelor of Agricultural Technology and Food Systems, Bachelor of Economics and Data Science, Master of Business Administration, Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration; Postgraduate Diploma in Education, Masters on Learning Design and Technology, Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computing, Masters in Data Science, Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Master of Science in Cyber Security.
He said the ten programmes were from the School of Agriculture, School of Business and Economics, School of Education, and School of Science.
The Open University of Kenya is also developing nine new programs.
They, according to Omwenga, include; Bachelor in Interactive Media Technology, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Rn – BScN), Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy, Masters of Digital Services Management, Masters of Leadership and Management of TVET, Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Policy and Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership and Management of Technical Vocational Training.
“They are programmes geared towards addressing specific skill gaps that are needed in the labor industry. We also believe in research where we are creating programs at the Postgraduate and even PhD levels so that we increase the knowledge and best practices on how we do things,” Omwenga said.
Omwenga said some of the varsity’s programmes also address specific need areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Economics thereby increasing quality decision-making processes.
He said with the programs offered at the university, they were able to change the world by addressing issues manpower and creating employment for young people by giving them the necessary skills to address challenges in both public and private sectors.
“We are here to address issues of diversity. Anybody who wants to undertake a program is at liberty to do so since through technology, you can access all our programs,” Omwenga said.