Students’ mobility and regional integration within selected universities in East African community

Abstract

In the current decade, studies have indicated increasing trends of student mobility globally. The East African Community (EAC) has been aiming at enhancing open borders which enables more people including students from its member states (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) to move freely, interact and learn from the diverse environments in EAC. This enables them to find new ways of achieving the goals they have in common. The world polity and the world culture theories of globalization, explains the important role played by students‘ mobility trends in universities in forming international and regional integration in EAC. However, there is no proper and reliable statistics on the number of Kenyans accessing higher education in foreign universities and also the number of those who returned after completion of their studies. With such drawbacks, determining the existing trends of student mobility in East Africa (EA) proved hard. Therefore, this research aimed at studying students‘ mobility in selected universities in EA. The specific objectives of the study were: to establish the trend of student mobility in East African universities, to investigate how student mobility contribute to regional integration in the EAC and to find out how universities in EA can be integrated in order to achieve a regional integration among higher learning institutions through students‘ mobility. This study was conducted through survey design. Owing to the scope of the study, random sampling technique targeting universities in EAC to obtain reliable response was used. Relevant data from universities in member states of EAC was collected using questionnaire presented to the registrar of academics and/or the international office of the selected universities. The other source of information included the relevant Ministry responsible for Education in each country studied, UNESCO (United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organization) data on mobility and the Commission responsible for higher education in each country. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and therefore established the trends of student mobility in selected universities in EA. The researcher came up with recommendations on how student mobility in universities in EA can be used to enhance regional integration. It came apparent that there are more foreign East African students than other foreign students in the selected universities in EA with over 30% in Kenya, majority being Tanzanian (11.1%) and almost 75% in Uganda, majority being Kenyan (33.6%) which is strength to regional integration process in the EAC region as students from EAC with diverse cultures interact in these universities. Specific programmes and services that are geared towards increasing students‘ mobility rates and cooperation among universities in EA were being offered by majority of the selected universities. In order to fasten regional integration, emphasis on these specific programmes and services is crucial.