Effects of democratizations of university education on quality of higher education in Kenya: A case of Moi University

In the last few years, Kenyan public universities have mounted parallel degree programmes for students who are qualified and are financially able to pay for their university education. Moi University introduced such a programme in 1998. As a result of these developments, there has arisen concern amongst the stakeholders on the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of higher education offered. The paper reports the findings of an investigation carried out in the year 2003 to determine the internal efficiency of the Privately Sponsored Students Programme at Moi University. The target population for the study was all the students enrolled in the Privately Sponsored Students Programme at Moi University in the 2002/2003 academic year. Data for this study was collected by use of a questionnaire from a random sample of 300 respondents. The significant finding was Privately Sponsored Programmes operated below optimal efficiency levels. Different degree programmes demonstrated different levels of efficiency in the way they translated their inputs (students) into outputs (graduands). Also, it was established that many critical performance inputs were lacking or in short supply, such as library books and journals, computers, furniture in lecture rooms and chemicals in laboratories. To reduce these inefficiencies, there is need to enhance provision of critical inputs like books and journals, computers and science equipment as well as various consumables items.  Key words: Democratization, education, efficiency, indicators, performance, quality.