The Kenyan government of Kenya is set to establish a graduate only science and innovation university at Konza Technopolis.
The university is being set up through the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Republic of South Korea and the two have started conducting architectural design and curriculum design for the University.
The institute, Kenya Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (Kenya- KAIST) will be modeled after the Korean Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (Korea- KAIST) whose design model is a research focused university that fosters elite human resources in science and technology needed by the nation.
“The adoption of the Korea-KAIST model is deliberate. We want to build a nurturing environment for graduate students not only in Kenya but also in East Africa, that will see an innovative growth, rallied by science, in the region. A highly-educated nation is paramount to its economic, social and political success, it is therefore our hope that this new venture will be embraced by the people of Kenya,” said Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) Chairman Reuben Mutiso.
Korea- KAIST has shown its capacity to innovate and spin off successful ventures such as Samsung and LG. In 2014 Korea- KAIST was ranked third place in the Times Higher Education’s “100 Under 50” ranking of the world’s best universities, less than half a century old. In June 2017, Reuters named it “Asia Pacific’s Most Innovative University” for the second year running.
Setting up Kenya -KAIST is purposed to provide high-quality education in Science and Technology in order to generate high-skilled engineers and scientists with both theory and practical knowledge, and to conduct socially relevant research and development (R&D), to improve national competitiveness and transform Kenya into an industrializing middle-income country as envisioned in Kenya Vision 2030 agenda.
The University will have three faculties whose core programme will include;Mechanical Electrical and ICT engineering, Chemical Civil and Agriculture; engineering/biotechnology andBasic science education such as math’s and physics.
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The Ministry of Education appointed Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) to support the implementation of the Project.
