[kictanet] Telecommunications Engineering is now a distinct education discipline

[James Kulubi]

Following  efforts by the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), telecommunications was recognized as  a distinct education discipline in USA early this months (see http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/university-education/telecommunications-engineering-is-now-a-distinct-education-discipline). Telecommunications programs can now be designed and evaluated on their own criteria other than relying on electrical engineering.
The events relating to telecommunication training in Kenya have largely followed those in the USA. Until 1994, Bell Systems was the only telecommunication training institution in US. In Kenya, the Kenya College of Communications Technology (KCCT) was the  sole telecommunication training institution  up to 1999. With other player coming into operation, training became liberalized. As a result,  most companies abandoned KCCT-then a subsidiary of Telkom Kenya Ltd  and started training their staff elsewhere. KCCT entered a downward spiral until it was eventually converted to a university college and renamed the Multimedia University College of Kenya in 2008.
Local universities including the Multimedia University of Kenya have been offering degree programmes in telecommunications in the last decade. However, none of these degree programme has been recognized by the Engineers Registration Board (Now Engineer Board of Kenya) largely because the Board was using electrical engineering as a benchmark for accrediting these new programmes. As a result some graduates from these programmes have been asked to take some additional electrical engineering courses before they are registered as graduate engineers.
It is my hope that EBK will take note of these evolving events in the USA and seek new ways to accredit ICT degree programmes such as telecommunication engineering, software engineering and multimedia engineering.
To read more click here:
http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/university-education/telecommunications-engineering-is-now-a-distinct-education-discipline


 Prof James Kulubi, PhD, Reg. Eng (K), MIEEE
Associate Professor of Communication Engineering, MMUST
Adjunct Professor of Telecommunications, Multimedia University of Kenya.