The Cooperative University College of Kenya plans to launch PhD degree programmes in Co-operative Business that will provide solutions to endemic problems of co-operative enterprises in the region and the world over.
The university council of chairpersons Gladys Miter said that the institution has already reviewed and upgraded its existing infrastructure and curricular from certificate to degree levels and will further develop and launch new postgraduate courses that are relevant to the co-operatives.
Speaking during the University 3rd graduation ceremony, she said that even as the college establishes research functions and embarks on serious research it should be charting out a bigger direction for innovation and knowledge transfer through incubation centres.
She added that the graduation ceremony was a milestone for the institution which had been a constituent college of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in the past three years.
Douglas Shitanda the college principal said that they had witnessed a steady increase in the student population.
“From a population of 780 students in 2011/2012 the student population now stands at 2,561 a 320 per cent increase in enrolment. As we become a fully-fledged university, the population will keep rising,” he said.
Meanwhile, the effort to revive the co-operative the university college also signed a progressive M.O.U with the County Government of Taita Taveta on strategic partnership.
CUCK students will benefit from the arrangement for internships to revive co-ops in the county.
Taita Taveta County Governor John Mruttu said this partnership will revolutionize cooperative business in the county and help in elimination of poverty.
On his part, CUCK Principal Shitanda expressed hope that the partnership will catapult the county's development agenda besides being a key milestone for the University.
The M.O.U was signed at the county headquarters in Wundanyi in the presence of CUCK's Prof. E. N Gicheru and the CeCs Taita Taveta County among others.