The medical and dental practitioners boards and councils carried out an inspection targeting quality and standards of medical courses offered in East African Universities. The inspection was performed between March 2 and March 6 by a team of technical health experts from the East African Community (EAC) partner states.
The report was released yesterday in Nairobi by the team of inspectors, which was chaired by Dr Nyemazi Alex, a member of the Rwanda Medical and Dental Council, and the chief executive of the Kenya Medical and Practitioners and Dentists Council, Daniel Yumbya
The inspection focused on governance, academic programmes, human resource, student affairs, infrastructure, research and innovation.
According to the just released report, the medical and dental practitioners boards and councils ordered Uzima University College in Kisumu to close its medical school, which has about 300 students. This is because it is operating below the minimum standards. However the decision to close the institution will be reviewed in six months following another inspection.
Uzima was called out for conducting lectures in incomplete buildings, failure to establish departments for basic sciences, over enrollment and gaps in staffing.
The report has also ordered Kenyatta University (KU) and Kenya Methodist University (Kemu), to suspend admissions of new students.
On one hand, Kenya University was ordered to stop admitting students for medicine and surgery programmes for failure to follow EAC guidelines on training and quality.
On the other hand, Kemu, was cited for over enrollment, poor staffing ratios in both preclinical and clinical programmes, infrastructure gaps, weaknesses in staffing and lack of accommodation for clinical students next to a hospital.
 Continuing students
The report has indicated that apart from Uzima University, all continuing students in the other universities including Kenyatta and Kenya Methodist will upon graduation be eligible for recognition within the EAC partner states.
UoN was ordered to establish additional training sites in order to address the needs of the large number of students and ensure it is ready for another inspection within 12 months.
Top in the list
In overall the report indicated that Mount Kenya University (MKU) scored the highest with 82 per cent beating Kenya’s oldest and biggest university, University of Nairobi (UoN), which scored 58 per cent in medicine and 68 per cent in the dental programme.
Other top performers are Maseno University with 81 percent, Kisii University with 80 per cent and Moi University with 61 per cent in the in medicine programme.
KUCCPS Revision of courses
The good thing is that Revision of courses for KUCCPS placement is yet to be closed. The deadline for first revision is on 9th, March, 2020. This means that students who had chosen the affected universities, can now revise and make appropriate choices.
Read also: How to Apply/Revise for KUCCPS 2020/2021 Courses step-by-step
Source: Daily Nation