courses or take longer to complete them. Data collected for this study in Kenyan public universities showed that Kenyan female students enjoy little support to complete their academic programmes. Female students from poor backgrounds in need of financial help drop out of university after being involved in relationships that end in motherhood. Many female students under such circumstances find it expensive and time–consuming minding their babies while attending classes. The introduction of cost-sharing has left young women from poor backgrounds disadvantaged. In Kenya, the public universities have included in their strategic plans and mission statements a reaffirmed commitment to improving student welfare services as a benchmark to improving the quality of the learning environment. One of the consequences of not coupling widening access policies with other support mechanisms is that implementation of the policies does not conclusively address gender inequality in terms of access and participation in higher education. Affirmative policies, such as those implemented in Kenya do not critically consider the underlying constraints. Hence, rather than address inequities in access and participation in higher education, they introduce an alternative form of disparity. This creates new bottlenecks for the targeted students as regards to their participation and completion of academic programs. Thus, institutional interventions need to focus beyond numbers and target initiatives that not only increase female student participation, but also enroll them into science, mathematics and technology academic programs. Some institutions have introduced some of these interventions but they need to complement them by other support services. For example, Nigeria allocates 60 percent of admissions to higher education for Science, technology and mathematics disciplines (Morley et al., 2006: 82). At Kenyatta University, a donor funded research project has been running in the last five years targeted at enhancing access for females in secondary schools to science and mathematics- based courses in the Universities. In Kenya, current policies in the education sector tend to acknowledge the need for a broad based affirmative policy, linking admission of students to skills needed for socio-economic development. The 2005 session paper for the education sector notes that there still exists inadequate capacity for access to universities, that there is a mismatch between skills taught at
courses or take longer to complete them. Data collected for this study in Kenyan public universities showed that Kenyan female students enjoy little support to complete their academic programmes. Female students from poor backgrounds in need of financial help drop out of university after being involved in relationships that end in motherhood. Many female students under such circumstances find it expensive and time–consuming minding their babies while attending classes. The introduction of cost-sharing has left young women from poor backgrounds disadvantaged. In Kenya, the public universities have included in their strategic plans and mission statements a reaffirmed commitment to improving student welfare services as a benchmark to improving the quality of the learning environment. One of the consequences of not coupling widening access policies with other support mechanisms is that implementation of the policies does not conclusively address gender inequality in terms of access and participation in higher education. Affirmative policies, such as those implemented in Kenya do not critically consider the underlying constraints. Hence, rather than address inequities in access and participation in higher education, they introduce an alternative form of disparity. This creates new bottlenecks for the targeted students as regards to their participation and completion of academic programs. Thus, institutional interventions need to focus beyond numbers and target initiatives that not only increase female student participation, but also enroll them into science, mathematics and technology academic programs. Some institutions have introduced some of these interventions but they need to complement them by other support services. For example, Nigeria allocates 60 percent of admissions to higher education for Science, technology and mathematics disciplines (Morley et al., 2006: 82). At Kenyatta University, a donor funded research project has been running in the last five years targeted at enhancing access for females in secondary schools to science and mathematics- based courses in the Universities. In Kenya, current policies in the education sector tend to acknowledge the need for a broad based affirmative policy, linking admission of students to skills needed for socio-economic development. The 2005 session paper for the education sector notes that there still exists inadequate capacity for access to universities, that there is a mismatch between skills taught at
ADDRESSING%20GENDER%20INEQUALITY-%20AHEC.docx