PUBLIC COMPARED TO PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES.
The public and private Universities in my own unbiased views differ in quite a number of weigh though we can never measure the quantity of knowledge dispatched by each plus being bright is an individual and not the school.
One of the advantages with public universities is that students who qualify to go to these institutions get to pay a subsidized fee since the government pays for them some amount. With this in mind, it is obvious that high school candidates who aspire to join institutions of higher learning would definitely prefer public universities. This brings a lot of competition among those who intend to join public universities and is a relief to the parents. With private universities, it is very expensive and therefore the first qualification is the money factor, followed by the grade you got in your KCSE. This makes it possible for the students who can afford to pay to learn in private universities.
Joining a Public University comes with pride, with the belief that those who join private institutions are not bright enough to match them. Joining a public university does not come easy, You know it’s so hard to remain in the sieve of thousands of candidates, the criterion that is so strict. We therefore find that public universities only take the students who perform the best in the country, where they select them in a chronological manner from the highest.
A critical look at both the private and public universities reveals a great difference between the two in terms of the assets of the universities. It is evident that the public universities are more established than their counterparts the private universities. This can be attributed to the fact that public universities are funded by the government. There is especially a difference when you compare the facilities and faculties that the universities have. You find that public universities are more equipped than the private universities. We therefore find that public universities are more upgraded in many more sectors compared to private universities.
Another major difference is the fact that public universities are bigger in size and faculty numbers based on the direct impact from the financing of the universities. While private universities may start with just a few faculties before they grow, public universities offer almost all common bachelor degrees, these allows the enrolled students freedom to move to a course of your dream whenever the course you are enrolled in things stop working out. The other differentiating factor between private and public universities is where public universities really have many students administered. This affects the student’s learning environment as students are taught in halls unlike most private universities where they use classrooms which are better learning environment. This has brought about the use of public address system and whenever the system is not available or audible the lecturer doesn’t care much who follows and who doesn’t.
The high population brings about problems in management and in many occurrences commotion is witnessed for example in manual registration of students, signing of course registration forms and many other administrative chores lag.
The high population of students plays a big role in the outcome of the results from the exams students sit, for instance a lecturer attending to a class with 800 students. How would he mark all the papers? Remember he is a part time lecturer at a private university where he signs a performance contract, has his private life to live, business to attend to and sometimes a thesis to defend. The good thing with the private institution is that there is 1000% reward for your hard work and there is always a chance to petition when you feel the marking was not well done and you feel hard done by,in the public this process is long and whenever you decide to do it the institution frustrates you and on remarking the lecturer can do even worse, these could develop to a grudge that would see face a hard time in school.
In private university most of them release the examination results after a whole year, this minimizes the chances to improve on your grade as opposed to public where the results are out on a semester basis and the booklets are returned to the students as evidence of fairness.
Public universities are highly overpopulated as compared to private ones and this leads in high competition in terms of resources and learning. If resources are few and limited, there will be a rush to try and access them, making it difficult for others to gain access to the resources. Private universities have a sizeable population, one that is manageable and who resources can be available for everyone. Like in my case since I joined Egerton University I have never attended a class of less than 100.This follows that public universities lecturers really do not have a one on one focus with the students like the private ones which lectures have time with the students This factor may make some students and sponsors choose private universities in spite of even doing well in their KCSE if you really want a run for your money.
One outstanding thing that can never miss while discussing about public universities is strikes. It is very funny because if it is not the students striking, it is their lectures striking. Under many occasions we have had temporary closure of the public universities due to strikes which leads to high loses and wasted time that results from the temporary closure. This also delays and extends the time one is supposed to graduate thus leading to frustrations.
While the public institutions boost of having many highly qualified teaching staff in numerous fields, wonderful facilities like laboratories, libraries among many others, their high population and lack of enough lectures in all fields as well as poor lecturers remuneration packages by the government resulting to perennial pay increase strikes have been their major un doing which has raised eyebrows about the quality of qualification that graduates from some public universities produces.With others claiming that we are baked graduates.
Students protest over poor learning conditions, attempts to impose additional or more stringent examinations or other reviews, stoppage or decreases in government subsidies, displeasure with particular institutional administrations, and differences with the national political leadership.due to the strikes in the public universities it has been a problem to secure a job if you are from a public university for instance currently Unilever Kenya limited is not employing students from University of Nairobi while the Kenyatta University students have found it hard since the incident of burning the institution and looting of computers.
Discipline has also been a key element that has greatly distinguished between public and private universities in Kenya. Cases of drug abuse like alcohol and cigarette smoking have been rampant in public universities. Scenes of students staggering, yelling while smoke oozing out of their mouths as they head to their rooms in the wee hours of the night have become the order of the day in these government universities while others would comfortably attend lectures in their situations, this distracts the serious students. Strikes where properties worth millions of shilling are usually destroyed are a perennial phenomenon associated with students from public universities while they are still the ones to pay for the losses. The students have become masters of stone throwing as they battle out with the police. Student demonstrations waving placards and chanting slogans to the law enforcers has become quite too familiar. Police student battles while students hulling stones at security officer and the police shooting teargas canisters at them in retaliation are also quite too familiar on our streets and media as well. The word dialogue to amicably resolve disputes is a vocabulary that only exists in dictionaries.
There is simply nothing like respect and adhering to the school’s rule of law. These just to mention but a few are some of the disciplinary issues that are always associated with public universities whenever the word discipline in universities is mentioned. The private universities are normally more disciplined compared to their counterparts. This has been attributed to strict rules and regulations that have been laid down which have to always be followed to the latter. This includes prohibition of drugs like alcohol, cigarettes etc, and prohibition of strikes of any form and to always to result to dialogue whenever there is always a misunderstanding of any kind. It is very rare that private university students are seen in running battles with the police. To them dialogue and diplomacy is the key to every conflict resolution while respect to the schools rule of law is always the wise thing to do. This may be attributed to the fact that many of these institutions are founded on Christian values which are always their driving force e.g. Strathmore University being catholic sponsored.
On this, I can give credit to Public University since they prepare an individual for the world outside. You become your own manager and self control is your priority though not everyone succeeds in this.
The restrictions of who enters the university and who does not in public universities does not exist, these has brought about insecurity and incidences of murdered students in the campuses these was recently the case where students were murdered my strangers who wore masks and used axes to kill the students. In Egerton a student was killed by villagers after an unhealthy argument.
The issue of student leadership is another thing that is very different between the two kinds of learning institutions; life in the campus during the campaigns is always unbearable. For example posters of the candidates are usually everywhere that is on trees, classrooms, cars, walls and even on our doors. In addition loud speakers are always everywhere on campus even at night as the candidates and their supporters crisscross the entire campus their campaign trail from one hostel and lecture room to the other to appeal for votes in order to capture the coveted seat. The elections are always marred with violence, Claims of rigging, ethnic inclinations and political interference by the national political leaders. The student leaders are usually viewed as celebrities. The campaigns are sometimes funded by the MP’s as a plot against a rival MP through another candidate. However, despite all this the campaign period is usually very exciting and full of fun which is the opposite in the private universities where elections are usually dull without much hullaballoo and at many times pass unnoticed. They are usually peaceful and transparent. The student leaders are not normally viewed as celebrities as is the case in public universities.
On the issue of the variety of courses to choose from the public universities boast of a variety of many courses majority of which are very technical, crucial, expensive to offer and very important at that examples being medicine, Engineering and architecture among others. the schools have so many courses on offer which is much higher than what the private universities offer. This is due to the availability of many qualified staff from various disciplines.
Lastly in private institutions there are opportunities to express you capability for instance participate in international conference. this is rare in public universities. The job placement office in private institutions is excellent with the office helping to connect students to job places. In public universities this is not the case since the population is big and those responsible reserve these slots for their relatives. In private, there is a chance of meeting and connecting to well off and international students who could be a starting point to your search of a place after school.
Now to your main question of double intake, we are yet to prove its success but not all the universities have confirmed this. It’s going to bring congestion into the student hostels with many missing out on rooms, a strained student lecturer ratio, congested lecture halls, poor living standards e.g. water shortages, not everyone can fit into the available resources e.g. computer labs, and the heaviest blow will come when they are finally out of college, will the job market also double intake them? Will it cope? Keep in mind that the job market has failed to cope with the current single intake.
This debate will not end anytime soon the choice rests on availability of funds, grade and choice. Whether you like public or private universities is totally an individual’s choice. But I feel that we as a country should promote the state owned institutions because they were made for the ordinary mwananchi and they should take advantage of their resources. If you look at the face of public universities, they represent people from all over the country; they represent national unity and diversity. Private institutions, in my opinion are for the few elite who can afford them and don’t want the hustle and bustle of public life. They want to do things themselves and seclude themselves from others.
But one thing is for sure, whether public or private, at the end of the day, all are just trying to offer education and services to their customers. Whatever the course, amount, it is a matter of pursuing our various careers. We each have different talents and these institutions have realized that and are providing the avenues to harness these talents, so that they can be used for the good for the benefit of the country. It’s just a matter of making sure you get good value for your money and achieve the goals you set when you joined your dream or not the dream institution. After all the job market is all about the skills and knowledge that you acquired that will matter.
Whenever biasness was evident I beg to apologize.
Marvin Omondi Ogutu.