Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has awarded Mount Kenya University (MKU) a quality assurance standard.
The ISO 9001: 2015 Quality Management System recertification ceremony was led by Eng. Zachariah Lukorito, KEBS chief manager, standards development and trade.
The university chancellor, Prof John Struthers said having been part of the university leadership for several years now, he understood the immense work that has been put in to achieve re-certification of the ISO 9001.
“This standard in the educational field evaluates and certifies all processes related to teaching and student learning in order to guarantee the quality of the educational institutions,” he said.
The chancellor said this is key in an increasingly competitive environment being experienced in Kenya and globally.
“Given the ever-increasing competition among universities in the world today, the ISO 9001 Certified institutions are able to compete strongly in the face of this competition,” he added
The University council chairman Prof David Serem says the ISO Certification will enhance growth and improve quality of education in the university.
“MKU has campuses, marketing and Open, Distance, and e-Learning (ODeL) Centres across the country and in the wider East African region. Moreover, other partner institutions will desire to collaborate with an ISO Certified institution,” Serem said.
Serem said the university council will continue to support the university management to promulgate policies, adopt best practices and put in place systems and structures that will make MKU a giant in quality assurance.
“MKU is committed to provision of world class education, research and innovation for individual transformation and sustainable development. Pursuit of this commitment, the university shall continually monitor its context, ensure compliance with all applicable requirements and continually improve on its effectiveness by implementing a quality management system based on ISO 9001:2015,” he added.
KEBS Managing Director Esther Ngari lauded the University saying, “It will boost the university’s mission of providing world-class education, research and innovation for global transformation and sustainable development.
“With this certification, you are squarely putting the university in the world map in terms of quality academic programmes and graduating of students with international quality standards,” Ngari added in a speech read on her behalf by Lukorito.
Ngari said the achievement of the UN Agenda 2030(SDGs) and Kenya’s vision 2030 in a world that is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic requires accelerated and coordinated efforts by all stakeholders and government agencies.
“One important lesson stemming from the covid-19 pandemic is that we need to build and strengthen our resilience to the risks associated with extreme events of such nature,” she said.
Ngari said post-pandemic policies need to integrate planning for resilience and risk management. “The biggest risk is losing years of growth efforts to one major external shock. To build back better, over the medium and long term, this ISO certification provides a viable framework and solution,” she noted.
Dr. Jane Nyutu, a founder member of the MKU board of directors, thanked the university leadership led by Vice-Chancellor, Prof Deogratius Jaganyi for achieving the ISO certification.
“I recognise the support KEBS has given us since 2012 when we got the first certification of ISO 9001:2008 standard version. I commend Madam Esther Ngari for the support and promise that the Board will continue to support the University Management through injecting resources especially ICT infrastructure necessary to ease the service delivery and promote quality delivery.
On his part, Jaganyi said MKU has a holistic approach to quality assurance, covering all the processes in the institution, in order to serve, to create and maintain customer satisfaction by understanding the customer’s preferences and needs.
“Our directorate of quality assurance conducts surveys and evaluations every semester to receive feedback from our students on the standards levels of our service delivery,” he said.