AgriSCALE project: Re-conceptualizing education in African HEIs

The four-year (2020-2024) project has been working to reform agri-entrepreneurship education to equip graduates with working life-relevant and entrepreneurial skills. The project envisions that the new generation of graduates will have the competencies to create jobs and to improve the sustainability of agriculture.

Six HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) from three African countries namely, the University of Zambia and Mulungushi University from Zambia, Bishop Stuart University and Gulu University from Uganda and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Egerton University from Kenya have part of the consortium with technical backstopping from three European universities: HAMK University and Aalto University from Finland and University of Pavia from Italy. The project aimed at building higher education capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa in the fields of bioeconomy and agriculture through curricula reforms to achieve a more student-centred education that exposes learners to real-life field challenges with companies and societal actors.

The AgriSCALE project has accelerated entrepreneurship through problem-based teacher training and curricula review to integrate entrepreneurship and climate-smart agriculture courses across disciplines to expose students to business concepts, idea generation, and venture creation. At Egerton University, five Master’s courses and three Bachelor’s courses have so far been reviewed.

(Left) AgriSCALE Project Coordinator, Dr Eija Laitinen, (Centre) Egerton’s Professors Patience Mshenga and Prof Mwanarusi Saidi and Egerton University students during the workshop.

The project comes to an end towards the end of the month of March 2024. The final project Workshop was conducted in JKUAT from 4^th-8^th March 2024. The workshop was an opportunity for project partners to share highlights and outputs from their institutions to stakeholders while students from the partner institutions shared their transformational journey.

“The student challenge was a turning point in my life because I got the chance to apply some theoretical skills learnt in class into real-life situations,” said Cyrill Awuonda, a Master’s student pursuing Agricultural Applied Economics at Egerton University

“Through the mentoring of mentors training, I have come to understand the need for guiding and facilitation rather than directing in teaching. I am now able to teach large classes of students through peer-support and overcome the initial feelings of frustration and loss of control,” said Victor Kilui Wabwile, a mentor and project team member at Egerton University.

Prof Patience Mshenga, Dean, the Faculty of Agriculture and the Project Principal Investigator at Egerton University highlighted the importance of sharing the project outputs with the Government bodies in the higher education sector such as the Commission for University Education. “We are expecting the first cohort of the competence-based curriculum students in the university in a few years and as such we need to get ready for this special group of learners. Thus, prior engagement with these organizations will foster partnerships to create a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in our universities to enhance the student-centered education approach country-wide.”

​ “The Industry has been raising concerns that graduates are coming out half-baked. This project has shown that it is possible to collaborate with the industry, to participate in problem-solving,” said Prof David Owiny, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs – Gulu University who is also serving as the Chair of the AgriSCALE Advisory Board.

“We believe in learning through doing. Through the AgriSCALE project, students are now able to work in multidisciplinary teams to solve real-life challenges and to find new sustainable social and business opportunities to meet 21st-century industry needs” said the Registrar Academic Affairs, at Egerton University - Professor Mwanarusi Saidi who has also been leading the project’s quality work package at Egerton University.  “As a result, a new network-based learning ecosystem has been created by partner HEIs, the industrial sector and societal partners for continuous development of education even after the project lifetime.”

JKUAT’s Prof Losenge Turoop, who was among key implementers of the project, noted that the project is in line with Kenya’s Competency-based Curriculum (CBC) that has been under implementation for several years now, and shaping learning within Kenya’s lower levels of learning. “AgriSCALE has proved that it is possible to nurture innovative minds that provide practical solutions to society. While 80 percent of learners indicated they would want to be employed at the start of the project in 2020, the same number now indicates they would want to be entrepreneurs and create products rather than being employed,” Prof Turoop said.

The Vice-Chancellor for JKUAT, Professor Victoria Wambui Ngumi, who graced the workshop also noted that the project had been critical in the training of university staff, to inculcate problem-based learning. “The project has facilitated revisions of our curricula, ensuring they remain dynamic and relevant to the evolving needs of our agricultural sector,” Prof Ngumi said. “The participation of our staff in PBL training courses has enhanced our capabilities and further enriched our teaching methodologies. The integration of innovative approaches such as PBL, climate-smart agriculture and entrepreneurship into our curricula is a testimony to our commitment to producing naturally and whole-rounded graduates well equipped to tackle real-life challenges,” she added.

The project was funded to the tune of 996,090 Euros (about KES 154 million) through the EU’s Erasmus+ program and has been running since January 2020.

By Victor Kilui