Utility and improvement, Edgeworth said, are the principles that ought to govern the curriculum and methods of teaching.
Considering the dynamics of a changing world, the two are key to making better the process of producing quality graduates. Quality graduates are problem-solvers.
From the myriad rankings every year, some universities are already getting it right, although they must continue climbing since the horizon keeps getting bigger and bleaker thanks to the evergreen challenges.
But for some, in which category Kenya probably falls, the journey is just starting or they are backpedalling, based on what employers and the Education minister George Magoha say.
The principal defect in the present system of Kenyan universities is devoting too much energy to producing PhD graduates some of who, Prof Magoha recently said, cannot remember their theses.
In a nutshell, the graduates are mere numbers, not talent.
Although attaining that level of education is desirable, it ought to be an exclusive club of a few among the millions without utility.
A quality graduate in the 21st Century should have vast advantages to the society.
A student who spends three years learning research by word of mouth, in all this time, seemingly neglects scholarly factors, ending up as featherweight graduates who are respected only at home but earn ridicule in the exclusive arenas of debate, questions, and problem-solving that puts the world on higher rungs.
In an era of disruption and heightened competition, among other things, if they are only fed with words, they remain graduates who are narrow and limited.
Recently, there has been a mad rush among local universities to take the lead in developing three-year PhD programmes. In most cases, it is one year of cognitive work in the classroom.
The programme then requires two years of research, which is largely research and dissertation.
A PhD is generally recognised as the appropriate research degree regardless of the discipline.
To get it right, the candidates ought to prove beyond reproach that they have the mettle, energy, rigour, time, and funds to launch and finish the programme.
It, therefore, becomes questionable when, at a single graduation, a university, can put on the merit list more than 100 graduands to be honoured.
When Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) awarded 118 Phds in the year 2019, the institution became the laughing stock before the Commission of University Education (CUE) started investigating the case.
JKUAT was found to have flouted the CUE’s doctorate rules since, among other missteps, dons were found to have supervised inordinately huge numbers of candidates, probably stifling quality.
Such questionable procedures requires a hawk-eyed regulator that should nip the mistakes in the bud instead of doing a postmortem.
Regulators must not be seen to be reacting to noise made on social media to take action.
A tight monitoring is required to ensure all graduates, from the Bachelor’s to PhD, will not just be honoured but also give back to the economy by ring-fencing it from diseases, corruption, and hate by delivering water-tight studies and knowledge that deliver decency and dignity to the rank and file.
We are haunted by food insecurity, national insecurity, lack of decent jobs, limited housing, external aggression, corruption, and questionable education. How can it be so when PhD is deeply entrenched in the academic circles?
Our society needs a visible relationship between what is studied in the classroom and quality of life.
There is a need to come up with a dichotomy of PhD programmes so that graduates can both teach and conduct research with equal finesse.
Even though “doctor” means “teacher” one cannot teach what he does not know. It is equally true that one never knows a thing until he is able to demonstrate it to others.
Teaching should thus justifiably be subordinate to research. Critically, faculties and departments ought to hire qualified staff, promote them, and give them security of tenure.
Quality graduates ought to be relevant to the needs of the society by always explaining themselves well since the globe is at their disposal to re-imagine and remodel.
