Haenicke Institute welcomes
Egerton University vice chancellor
and TNE director at Monday reception

A welcome reception for Vice Chancellor James Tuitoek and Professor Stanley Kagwanja from Egerton University in Nakuru, Kenya, a WMU transnational education partner, is planned for 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday on the 10th floor of Sprau Tower. The reception is open to students faculty and staff. RSVP's appreciated to:
heather.a.boyle@wmich.edu, or call (269) 387-3965.

Professors Tuitoek and Kagwanja campus visit itinerary

WMU/Egerton University transnational education program background

More than 300,000 students in Kenya pass their secondary school exit exams but do not find a government-funded seat in the higher education system. WMU is expanding its operations in Kenya with growing faculty research interests, a new partnership with the University of Nairobi, and international student recruitment projects.

WMU's newest transnational education program (twinning) is with Egerton University in Nakuru, Kenya. Students take courses with WMU curriculum taught by faculty from Egerton for 4 semesters before transferring to Kalamazoo. The third cohort is completing their second semester of classwork. About a dozen students are on campus now from the first cohort. Approximately 39 students from the 2nd cohort are preparing to transfer in Fall 2008. Engineering and business are the initial areas of focus for this program.

Dr. Kagwanja chaired the Chemistry department at Egerton for several years before taking over the Nakuru Town Campus. His research interests cover all aspects of the preparation, structural characterisation, and physical properties (electrochemical, magnetic, optical and photophysical) of complexes based on transition-metal (d-block) As such the work is interdisciplinary and covers many aspects of inorganic, organic, physical and materials chemistry. He is also researching on contamination of the environment, (food, water and
air ) by organic and inorganic pollutants. (Curriculum Vita available on request.)

Egerton is one of five public universities in Kenya. It was founded as a farmer training college in 1939 and gained 'university status' by act of parliament in 1987. Agriculture remains at the core of its activities. However, education represents the highest enrollment, roughly 50 percent. Enrollment is next highest in agriculture, followed by commerce. Health Sciences is a newer program with limited admittance due to licensing and regulatory constraints. They also have a small cohort concentrated in environmental sciences.

The main campus is located on the Egerton estate at Njoro, roughly 30 km from Nakuru. With a population of 800,000, Nakuru is Kenya's 4th largest city. The WMU transnational education program is housed at the Nakuru town campus.

Egerton University is organized in the following Faculties (colleges at WMU):

1.    Faculty of Agriculture    
2.    Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
3.    Faculty of Education and Human Resources
4.    Faculty of Engineering and Technology
5.    Faculty of Environment and Resources Development (FERD)
6.    Faculty of Health Sciences
7.    Faculty of Science
8.    Laikipia Campus College Faculty of Education
9.    Kisii Campus College Faculty of Commerce
10.    School of Continuing Education (SCE)
11.    Institute of Women, Gender and Development

The majority of the WMU/Egerton TNE students are engineering students. Business is an area of possible expansion. Faculty exchange and research opportunities are of significant interest to the faculty here.