The Kenyan labour market’s need for qualified professionals with practice-oriented university degrees is enormous, but cannot be adequately met by Kenya’s strongly theoretically oriented higher education. An expansion of the Kenyan higher education system through elements of practice-oriented higher education with the involvement of industry and business can counteract this.

To help achieve this, the DAAD and the German Federal Foreign Office are promoting a programme to network German and Kenyan higher education institutions with the aim of establishing essential elements of the practice-oriented training provided by German universities of applied sciences (HAW) in the Kenyan higher education system. Interested Kenyan university teachers and young academics are informed and trained about teaching at a HAW. These training measures are designed, organised and carried out by German universities of applied sciences and should also include integrated practice-oriented modules in companies.

The Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences (THB) has maintained close relations with Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) in Kakamega (Western Kenya) since 2017, initially to support the NGO Agrokenya, which was founded and is run by a THB graduate.

Within the framework of the above-mentioned DAAD-funded project ProUniEdu-WeK, other departments of MMUST were included in the cooperation in addition to the School of Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences and Technology (SAVET) – such as the School of Natural Sciences (SONAS), the School of Public Health, Biomedical Sciences & Technology (SPHBST) and the School of Engineering and Built Environment (SEBE). In this blog, the activities within the framework of ProUniEdu-WeK are loosely described and illustrated by the project actors:

– First fact-finding trip to Nairobi and Kakamega in March 2018

– First workshop at MMUST in May 2018

– First workshop at THB and MHS in September 2018

– Second fact-finding trip to Kakamega and Eldoret in March 2019

– Second workshop at MMUST in May 2019

– Second workshop at THB and HNEE in September 2019

– Workshops at MMUST and visit to UoE in Eldoret in November 2019

– Workshops on telemedicine topics at MMUST in November 2019

– Hybrid (final) Workshop at THB in August 2021

In addition, there took place several project-oriented travels of German team-members to their Kenyan counterparts during this interesting and fruitful project.