The Commission for University Education (CUE) reported that the number of PhD graduates fell 16.6 per cent last year, declining from 1,022 in 2024 to 852 in 2025, a reduction of 170 graduates.

The drop lowered the share of doctoral graduates to 0.7 per cent of total university graduates, compared with 0.8 per cent the previous year, as total university graduate numbers rose to 124,905.

Male PhD graduations fell from 615 to 472, while female graduations fell from 407 to 380, resulting in women accounting for 44.6 per cent of doctoral graduates, up from 39.8 per cent a year earlier.

Doctoral enrolment declined 5.6 per cent to 8,180 students in 2025 from 8,666 the year before, and only about 11 per cent of PhD students complete their studies within the three-year benchmark, against a national target of 20 per cent.

“The 16.6 per cent single-year PhD decline is a concerning finding, potentially signaling reduced research funding or fewer supervisory positions,” said CUE. “Policymakers should consider targeted postgraduate bursaries, research fellowships, and industry-linked doctoral programmes to arrest the PhD decline.”

The funding crunch in public universities has coincided with a fall in lecturers from 6,627 in 2024 to 6,606 last year and a decline in tutorial fellows from 3,117 to 2,970, while adjunct academic staff more than doubled from 758 to about 1,611.

Total university enrolment rose 12.5 per cent to 707,150 in 2025, pushing the student-to-academic-staff ratio in public chartered universities from 44.36 to 51.12 students per staff member.

Academic staffing grew 6.8 per cent to 16,434 during the year; staff publications increased 12.5 per cent to 6,018, whereas student publications fell 25.1 per cent and staff innovations declined 31.3 per cent.

CUE warned that the output of 852 PhD graduates represents only 35.5 per cent of the national target of 2,400, highlighting a risk to research capacity and Kenya’s competitiveness for international funding.

“There are several factors attributed to this including but not limited to inadequate support programmes and facilities in public universities, funding constraints, poor supervision, untimely feedback to students, uncoordinated irregular student-supervisor meetings and low level of qualified academic staff,” wrote contract management consultant Otieno Panya.