University students in a lecture hall. /AI ILLUSTRATIONEducation strengthened its dominance of Kenya’s university graduate courses in 2025, while output in several science, engineering and agriculture fields declined, raising concerns about the balance between graduate training and the country’s technical skills needs.
The Commission for University Education (CUE) University Statistics Report 2025 shows that 37,817 graduates, or 30.3 per cent of the 124,912 graduates recorded in 2025, were in Education.
This was an increase from 34,156 education graduates in 2024, when the field accounted for 27.6 per cent of the 123,928 graduates.
Education was not only the largest field by graduate numbers but also recorded the biggest absolute increase, adding 3,661 graduates in one year.
The growth came as several STEM-related fields contracted. Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics recorded the largest decline, falling from 11,019 graduates in 2024 to 9,097 in 2025, a loss of 1,922 graduates.
Their share of total graduates dropped from 8.9 per cent to 7.3 per cent. Engineering, Manufacturing and Production graduates fell from 7,023 to 6,401, while Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary declined from 2,937 to 2,741.
Together, Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering, Manufacturing and Production, and Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Veterinary lost 2,740 graduates between the two years.
CUE warns of skills mismatch
CUE says the figures point to a shift in the composition of Kenya’s university graduate output, which is drifting away from STEM towards service-oriented disciplines.
The commission warned that growing education and service-oriented fields and declining output in science, engineering and agriculture could create a mismatch between the skills produced by universities and those required by the economy.
“With more than one in three graduates now training as a teacher and the applied sciences pipeline eroding faster than it can recover, the system risks a structural mismatch with economic demand,” the report says.
It recommends a review of funding formulas, accreditation incentives and bursary allocation to address the drift away from science and engineering.
The report calls for targeted measures to support STEM disciplines, particularly those requiring costly laboratories, equipment and other infrastructure.
The commission cautioned that if the trend continues, Kenya could face reduced technical capacity even as universities continue producing larger numbers of graduates overall.
Education accounts for more than one in three in key domains
The concentration of education courses becomes more pronounced when graduate output is examined at the narrower programme-domain level.
Across 44 academic domains, Education Arts was the largest, growing from 18,446 graduates in 2024 to 21,401 in 2025.
Education Science produced 9,351 graduates in 2024, while Education (Other) accounted for another 6,359.
Combined with Education Arts, the three education sub-domains accounted for 34.6 per cent of all university graduates in 2025, according to CUE.
The report links the expansion of education programmes to continued demand for teachers and the relative job security associated with government employment.
The government has hired 100,000 teachers since September 2022 with 16,000 more expected to be recruited by mid 2027.
The increase in Education enrolment contrasts with the performance of several scientific disciplines. Physical and Related Sciences recorded the largest fall, declining by 1,061 graduates.
Mathematics and Statistics fell by 454, while Biological and Related Sciences dropped by 375.
The three domains collectively lost more than 1,800 graduates in a single year.
Computing grows as traditional STEM fields contract
The graduate picture is not uniformly negative for technical disciplines. Computing and ICT increased from 8,627 graduates in 2024 to 9,635 in 2025, a gain of 1,008.
Health and Welfare also grew substantially, from 8,886 to 10,225 graduates, while Arts and Humanities increased by 1,380.
CUE says growth in health-related fields is consistent with demographic pressures and investment in healthcare, while the expansion of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is linked in the report to the programme mix of rapidly expanding private chartered universities.
However, the increase in computing was not enough to offset declines across other technical disciplines.
CUE says Computer Science and Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunication produced 3,834 graduates combined in 2025.
The report describes the number as “insufficient at scale” in the context of Kenya’s technical skills requirements.
Engineering also recorded a decline despite its strategic role in industrial development, while Agriculture remained one of the smaller graduate fields.
Business falls
Business, Administration and Management Studies remained the second-largest field despite recording the sharpest absolute decline.
Graduate numbers fell from 28,005 in 2024 to 24,194 in 2025, a reduction of 3,811.
Its share of total graduates consequently fell from 22.6 per cent to 19.4 per cent.
Education and Business together accounted for more than half of all graduates in both years.
The overall number of graduates, however, changed little, rising by just 984 from 123,928 in 2024 to 124,912 in 2025.
Overall, seven of the 13 broad fields recorded growth, while six declined.
The 2025 figures now leave policymakers with the uphill task of striking a balance between skills output and what the job market really wants.
