The Quality of University Education in Kenya: the Working Environment of Lecturers

A broad-based and good quality education is among the most powerful instruments known to reduce poverty and inequality among citizens of a nation. Quality education is a good academic training based on good knowledge transfer, a good learning environment and a good relationship between teaching and research. This study was interested in determining the employment status, workload and challenges facing university lecturers in the course of their work. The major finding was that lecturers were overworked. However, both students and lecturers confirmed that the level of quality education at the university was still good despite some lecturers who did not attend classes regularly or failed to prepare adequately. In addition, reference textbooks in the library were few and sometimes lecturers had to buy their own books and share the notes with students. The level of research was also low with few publications. The study recommended that all lecturers be encouraged to do research, publish and participate in conferences both local and international; increased funding for research; reduction of the teaching load; purchase of adequate textbooks in time; and increased use of ICT by lecturers.