{"id":6365,"date":"2026-09-30T10:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T08:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/?page_id=6365"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T09:04:41","slug":"university","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/italia-e-kenya\/diplomazia-scientifica\/university\/","title":{"rendered":"University"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kenya has 79 universities registered with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cue.or.ke\">Commission for University Education (CUE)<\/a>, including 41 public and 38 private institutions, placing it among the African countries with the largest number of universities. In many of these institutions, however, the emphasis remains primarily on teaching and degree programmes rather than research. Only 48 of the 79 universities offer at least one doctoral programme and can therefore be regarded as research-oriented institutions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kenya\u2019s higher education system underwent a major expansion following the 2012 university reforms, which facilitated the establishment and upgrading of numerous public and private universities. In 1970, the country had only one public university\u2014the University of Nairobi\u2014and one private institution, the United States International University (USIU). By the time of the 2012 reforms, the system comprised seven public and 15 private universities. The continued expansion of the university sector to its present size reflects both Kenya\u2019s substantial population growth\u2014with approximately 60% of the population under the age of 25\u2014and the growing demand for access to higher education.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A distinctive feature of Kenya\u2019s higher education landscape is its Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector. The TVET system is designed to equip students with practical and professional skills that facilitate entry into the labour market and support the development of productive sectors in line with the country\u2019s national development strategy. It comprises more than 2,500 public and private institutions offering training across a broad range of fields, from mechanics and engineering to tourism and hospitality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kenya\u2019s university student population stands at approximately 550,000, of whom around 415,000 are enrolled in public institutions. In terms of fields of study, agriculture, economics, and education account for a significant share of enrolments, while technical and scientific disciplines\u2014including computer science, engineering, and telecommunications\u2014have experienced substantial growth in recent years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The governance of the university system\u2014including the accreditation of institutions and the approval of degree programs\u2014is overseen by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.education.go.ke\">Ministry of Education<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cue.or.ke\">Commission for University Education-CUE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under the current government structure, university research falls within the broader national research system overseen by the <a href=\"https:\/\/sri.go.ke\">State Department for Science, Research and Innovation (SDRSI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenya has 79 universities registered with the Commission for University Education (CUE), including 41 public and 38 private institutions, placing it among the African countries with the largest number of universities. In many of these institutions, however, the emphasis remains primarily on teaching and degree programmes rather than research. Only 48 of the 79 universities [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":166,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6379,"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6365\/revisions\/6379"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ambnairobi.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}