International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 8; May 2011 177 Students’ Admission Policies for Quality Assurance: Towards Quality Education in Kenyan Universities Mr Calleb O Gudo (Corresponding Author) Deputy Director Research and Extensions KCA University PO Box 56808 -00200 Nairobi. Kenya E-mail: callebgudo@yahoo.com, Phone: 0714 560601 Dr Maureen A Olel Lecturer Maseno University PO Box 333 – Maseno. Kenya E-mail: atiolel@yahoo.com Phone:0721 261325 Abstract The demand for university education in Kenya has significantly increased. Many secondary school graduates and the working class look for opportunities to pursue university education. There are also students from other countries who would like to study in Kenya. This diversity of sources of university student population has posed challenge to student admission policies. The study focused on effectiveness of student admission policies in public and private universities in Kenya. Data was collected from a sample of 502 university students using a structured questionnaire. It was found that public universities did not have the necessary national and ethnic diversity of students; however, majority of students were studying courses of their preferences. Faith based private universities considered religious faith of students before accepting or rejecting applications for admission. It was found that public universities admitted students of higher grades than private universities. It was recommended that the government formulates policies regulating student admissions to guarantee transferability of student grades across universities, acceptable diversity of students and exemption rules for admission in public and private universities. Key words: Quality, quality assurance, diversity, transfer of grades and exemptions Introduction It is not a simple task defining quality education. Difficulty arises from the fact that it is an abstract of a desired end whose attributes are relative. However, the most common terms used to define quality assurance are „fitness for purpose‟ and „conformance to standards‟. Fitness for purpose refers to purpose and utility of the product while conformance to standards is standard based approach aligned to the specified standards given by a regulatory agency. Kenya has adopted a hybrid approach of the two. Consequently quality assurance can be said to refer to mechanisms by which an institution assures itself and stakeholders that it shall achieve the standards it has negotiated and agreed on. A significant quality assurance ingredient at regulatory level is quality of students admitted to a university. In Kenya, Joint Admissions Board (JAB) provides central admission services to public universities for its regular (direct entry students). With commercialization and privatization of higher education opening doors to old age (mature) students who are working and others who may not have obtained the minimum cut off grade for direct entry at secondary school level, majority of students are now admitted by the individual universities. Thus, secondary school certificate is no longer the only admission requirement as it has been in the past. These changes together with increased demand for university education from secondary school graduates pose challenges to Commission for Higher Education and the universities on the regulations for admission of students to universities. Private universities on the other hand do not receive students from JAB. Thus, admission of students to private universities is wholly the responsibility of individual universities. JAB is not a creation of the Universities Act 1985 which guides the higher education sector in Kenya, but an amorphous entity which operates on trust as a friendly organization of Vice Chancellors from the public universities. Since majority of students enrolled in universities are admitted through self-sponsored programmes, the responsibility of JAB as the recognized agent on behalf of the government in student selection for admission to universities is no longer justifiable and calls for re-evaluation. Methodology The general objective of this study was to conduct a comparative study to establish effectiveness of student admission policies in selected public and private universities in Kenya.