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A fresh row has erupted over-engineering students whose degrees have not been accredited by the Engineering Registration Board (ERB), but are being taught by universities.

The board told Parliament many engineering courses in several universities continue to be taught despite not being accredited by the professional body.

“It is a waste of resources for students to take the unaccredited courses when they will not be accepted upon graduation,” ERB registrar Margaret Ogai said.

It is inconceivable that this issue remains unresolved up to now. This matter has been raging for years with no solution in sight, as the Commission for University Education (CUE), and the professional regulators engage in ego trips and mind wars.

The upshot of it is that the lives of thousands of students who are going through the university system and of others who have graduated are being destroyed through no fault of their own. These students will never be registered to practice as professionals in their chosen fields. It is so cruel.

CUE insists professional bodies stay out of the courses being taught at universities. That, alone, it will determine what courses universities teach, when, how, and to whom.

Indeed, the position was re-emphasised by the chairperson of the CUE, Prof Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha, during the current row.  “Professional bodies should keep off universities and wait for the students out there,” he said.

Professional bodies, on the other hand, say they have to accredit courses taught at the universities, otherwise they will not register graduates of courses they have not approved. Strangely, both CUE and the professional bodies are all government organisations, created by statute.

The matter was prosecuted before the courts, and CUE emerged victorious. But since the mandate given to professional bodies cannot be usurped by any other entity, this win was essentially just a pyrrhic victory. The bottom line is that it does not matter how many students universities graduate in courses approved by CUE, as long as professional bodies do not recognise those degrees, they are useless! It is that simple.

It is time for the university system to stop burying its collective head in the sand. What happened to collaboration? What happened to co-operation? What happened to the best interests of the child?

Obstinacy will solve nothing. Obstinacy is what has got this matter to where it is. Get this matter out of the courts. This propensity to legalese by parties to this conflict has achieved nothing. In fact, the CUE has already threatened to go to court over the current row.

Courts take years to resolve matters. Students are suffering and need answers now! Instead of going to court, CUE should seek a mediated solution to midwife a deal all players can buy into.

Cabinet Secretary for Education, Prof George Magoha, must now provide leadership in this matter. It is quite disconcerting that he seems to have maintained a studious distance on a matter as critical as this.

Magoha is now in charge of education policy, has run a  university, and has been a practicising professional. He is uniquely placed to understand all the perspectives this matter throws up. He cannot continue evading this matter as students continue pursuing “useless degrees,” having their lives destroyed.

If it is the law that needs to be harmonised and amended, this must be done without further delay. The current arrangement where the universities think they can train professionals for professional bodies at the latter’s complete exclusion is sheer delusion.

For the university system to allow this situation to fester for even an extra day is criminal negligence, especially because majority of those students are not even aware of the deep hole they are digging themselves into the further they push into their studies.

Magoha must bring all parties to the table to get a lasting solution, and save those hapless students caught up between the king-sized egos of people who were appointed to take care of their best interests.

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