President, Aga Khan University, Mr Firoz Rasul
Member, Board of Trustees, Mr Yusuf H Keshavjee
Provost and Vice President, Academic, Dr Carl Amrhein
Members of Government and the Diplomatic Corps;
Deans
Members of Faculty, and staff of the University
Alumni, Distinguished Guests
Parents, Guardians
Graduating Class of 2018
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to be part of this 15th Convocation of the Aga Khan University. I congratulate the graduands - gathered here who have toiled hard in search of knowledge and excellence. Your hard work has finally paid off. Today marks the beginning of a special phase in your lives: a moment of special personal accomplishment and deep society pride. Relish it and step into the world of work or management with the same dedication and zeal as you exhibited during your time here. I want to commend the Aga khan University for preparing you well for the world of work.  Please join me in appreciating the many contributions that His Highness the Aga Khan has made across the world, in East Africa and of course Kenya. We don’t say thank you enough. I urge You to do the University proud by being good and noble citizens that will contribute to our national development with integrity and commitment. 

There is a consensus in cognitive psychology that it takes knowledge to gain knowledge and that the most educated people are not those who know everything, but those who know where to find information at a moment’s notice. This is the skill that you all take away from this institution today. Use it for the good of others, your communities and country. It’s been said before that your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead. Lead well and with compassion and with dedication. Be ambitious and gracious, dream big it’s been said before that if your dreams don’t scare you they are not big enough. (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf former President of Liberia.)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Universities are the highest institutions of learning and research. As the level at which high-order skills are imparted, Universities will continue to drive our national technological and industrial development agenda as well as the advancement of knowledge in all other fields of national endeavour. We are living in a complex skills-demand and supply paradigm that is unpredictable and highly competitive. We must therefore nurture an education system that focuses on the individual and prepares them adequately for the world of work.

Globally, the economic returns for higher education graduates are the highest in the entire educational system — an estimated 17 percent increase in earnings as compared with 10 percent for primary and 7 percent for secondary education (World Bank, 2017).

However, we continue to experience high levels of unemployment as a result of automation, training and industry needs mismatch, inadequate post-graduation preparation for young graduates, and increased skills supply compared to market demand. This has necessitated critical introspection by the sector and the inevitable need to reform University education to guarantee quality and relevance.

The soaring rate of youth unemployment and underemployment is of great concern. A study conducted by Dalberg in 2018 revealed that approximately 84% and 60% of the entire workforce comprised of young people between the ages of 15-35 who were either unemployed or underemployed. While the state of youth has been evaluated through the sole lens of unemployment, studies now show that underemployment is synonymous to unemployment. Most young graduates are classified as being employed while in fact, they are grossly underpaid (0.2 dollars a day) or not paid at all. 

By the year 2023, Dalberg estimates that an additional 2.3 young people will join the workforce and estimated that 6.1 million young Kenyans will either be unemployed or underemployed by 2023. This number takes into account the expected creation of 8.5 new jobs. In light of the foregoing, the entire landscape of training for skills needs an urgent, practical and prioritized policy shift taking into consideration the effects of these changing dynamics. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In order to provide quality and relevant training, a systematic review of the constraints facing the higher education sector is necessary. These constraints include: curricula that is poorly aligned with the changing needs of the knowledge economy, declining quality of education, inadequate infrastructure to match curricula reforms and increased enrolment, which has overloaded lecturers and strained available infrastructure, moonlighting and inadequate student-lecture contact hours, declining standards and depth of research and shrinking liquidity.

To address these challenges, the Ministry has proposed and is implementing the following measures to streamline tertiary education:

• We are engaging partners to expand our pool of intellectual-exchange with other high-powered Universities in the world.

• In March, 2019, I will lead a delegation of 10 local University Vice-Chancellors to the United Kingdom to meet and engage with 10 United Kingdom based institutions’ Vice Chancellors in a first of its kind, active collaborative project. It is my hope that this carefully thought-through process will offer an opportunity for our local universities to find ways of engaging with counterparts in the United Kingdom particularly, in the fields of research and innovation. 

• I have also extensively engaged with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a series of discussions that will broaden sino-Kenyan relations in the field of higher education. Several institutions including the University of Nairobi and Dedan Kimathi University of Science and Technology have benefitted from this collaboration.
  

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

In conclusion, let me urge all of you to support the Ministry’s last mile form one admission tracer campaign aimed at ensuring that we have, for the first time in our country, 100% transition from primary to secondary school. This policy priority championed by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta will fully meet Kenya’s commitment to the constitutional imperative on the right to education, reinforce the rights of all Kenyan children and give every young person a chance to acquire 12 Years of Quality Education. As at 12th February, 2019, the transition rate was at 90%. We will continue with the push to account for all the candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination last year.

Let me conclude by sharing one of my favourite poems with all of you, especially the graduating class of 2018:

Don’t just learn, experience, Don't just read, absorb.

Don't just change, transform, Don't just relate, advocate.

Don't just promise, prove, Don't just criticize, encourage.

Don't just think, ponder, Don't just take, give.

Don't just see, feel, Don’t just dream, do. 

Don't just hear, listen, Don't just talk, act.

Don't just tell, show, Don't just exist, live.” 

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart​

Thank you very much. 

RELATED LINKS

• Convocation 2019
  

• Address by President
  

• Valedictory Address

• Our G​​​raduates​​