Introduction

Three UAS Workshops were conducted at HNU and THI for 17 academic faculty from Kenya. The workshops were beneficial for the participants and they provided the information for moving forward the UAS idea of sharing the German model of university education.

We have shared our lessons with Moi University management and I am quite optimistic that we will continue to get their full support during implementation of some of our suggestions.  There are components that will be easy to implement in our University and some will be modified based on contextual issues. The advantage with us is that Moi University was started as a University of Science and Technology with an applied orientation. Most of the programmes specializations at Moi University are tailored to specific work areas or industries. The students are required to familiarize themselves with their future working environment through industrial attachment or internship. In addition the students are required to write a final project based a case study of company or external institution.

The faculty members from Moi University involved in the East Africa Network of Excellence for Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) are Dr. David Njuguna, Dr Cleophas Achisa and Prof Simiyu Sitati from the School of Engineering and Dr Charles Lagat from the School of Business & Economics. The desire is to adopt some of the concepts of the model applied sciences in teaching, learning and research and to enhance the University Industry linkages. Following the completion of the three workshops at HNU and THI I had several  ‘intentions for implementation’ at Moi University together with the three other faculty.

Sharing the lessons learnt with other faculty members

We information both informally and formally. Then we made a request to University management to arrange for a workshop for the faculty members and it was granted and on 18th March 2019 we had a whole day workshop for sharing ideas about the German Model of Applied Sciences

Review of our industrial attachment and internship programmes

We had a chance to share the German Model of internship and attachment within our schools. We were also able to talk about the areas of improvement during the workshop we had on 18th March 2019. We shall be able to introduce some changes gradually into the existing internship  arrangements and curricula.

Restructuring university-industry relationships

We learned that German Universities have formal relationships with the industry. This an arrangement we will use to strengthen our relationships with industry. We were facilitated by Moi University management to have workshop with representatives of industry in Western Kenya on 19th Match 2019. During the workshop we discussed the need to develop frameworks of engagement and agreed on a way forward.