In an increasingly competitive world in terms of jobs, public appointments and leadership positions, education has continued to gain currency over other factors like family relations, next-of-kin or inheritance. Businesses are going for highly-qualified candidates. A bachelor’s degree is considered a must for managerial positions. In job adverts, a master's degree is always desirable and an added advantage.

Public universities in Kenya can only admit roughly 10,000 students out of over 100,000 successful school-leavers. The Joint Admissions Board, made up of university registrars, has cited limited bed capacity to accommodate students. The huge numbers locked out of public universities are left with the options of joining colleges for diplomas, attending expensive private universities, privately sponsoring their tuition in the public universities or flying out of the country to overseas universities. Still, due to experience and traditions, a public university degree is highly-valued by a wide spectrum of employers.

A new system was introduced in the late 1990s to tackle some of these problems. This was a direct influence of the Structural Adjustment Programs through which the International Monetary Fund pressured the Kenyan government to cut public spending as a pre-condition for aid. Public universities were allowed to admit students who could not otherwise be admitted, on the condition that they sponsor their own studies.

The programme, known as Module II, is widely known as parallel program. For a degree like a bachelor's in economics at the University of Nairobi, a government-sponsored student parts with Ksh120,000 ($1,580) while a parallel student has to cough up Ksh600, 000. Crucially, the grades needed by each group are markedly different. The entry-point for a bachelor's degree in nursing in 2004 was an A- for a government-sponsored student, while a Module II student just needed a C+ and a cheque of Ksh250, 000 for the first year tuition fee.

Such huge costs can only be met by the upper middle class. Even though they did not fair well in the entry exams, they have the money to pay for their studies. On the other hand, the bright students who did not hit the cut-off points but cannot raise the money are locked out. That is why it is very common in Kenya to find a student who scored an impressive B grade but never made it to campus and another who had a C+ graduating with honours! Essentially, the government has taken a back-seat role; it is a question of who can pay for their education.

Government-sponsored students do their classes during the day, but paying students have tutorial hours in the evening and weekends. It is seen as a part-time activity compared to regular students who have classes between 8AM and 5PM. In private, professors criticise the evening classes, claiming there is a lack of seriousness in studies and research, but they are paid more if they have more students in these Module II classes. The reason lecturers continue to teach them without any changes could be a function of their poor pay and a wish to retain these classes for a better deal, going by the principle that the bigger the class, the higher the pay.

At graduation ceremonies, there are several first class honours from Module II, but very few from regular students. Why is it that a regular student, who scored an A- when joining university and attended classes as the main event of his day, scores a 2:2 while a paying Module II student, who scored a C+ and has studied at university on a part-time basis, scores a first? In the end, this does not mean that Module II students do not make good students. Actually some have conducted quality research and deserve their every grade.

University of Nairobi law students went on strike in 2002 protesting over the continued erosion of the integrity of the degrees and claimed there was favouritism of the Module II students.  Now, various changes have been made to improve the programme. An effort has been made to mix the student classes to avoid perceptions of double standards. In another twist, the government has begun providing loans to all students, regardless of their module. Regular students repay at a 4% interest while Module II participants repay at 8%. The big question is why does the government not use academic meritocracy to sponsor those poor students who cannot raise the entrance fee?

Higher education in Kenya is for the super bright and the rich. It is clear that the universities can accommodate more students in their classes, going by the huge sizes of Module II classes. The question of student accommodation could be answered with the introduction of private hostels.

Poor Kenyan students are the losers in the whole scenario. The future of higher education seems to rest on the private sector, through private colleges and universities, although their high costs locks out the poor. If the government does not move in fast to intervene and control the strong wave of ‘market-driven grades’, the quality will not only be compromised but more gravely, the gap between the rich and poor will continue to widen. The government should come in and spend more on higher education for the sake of a knowledgeable and peaceful Kenya.