“As a university, our vision is to have co-operative education become a mainstream pillar of higher education systems and socio-economic transformation of people locally and globally,” says Prof. Kamau Ngamau. “Co-operative education can help in addressing youth unemployment, strengthen the co-operative sector as a grassroots catalyst of economic development across varying sectors of the economy, and promote inclusive and sustainable growth.”
Prof Ngamau is vice chancellor of the Co-operative University of Kenya (CUK), a public chartered institution of higher learning located in Karen, Nairobi, with a history dating back to 1952 under the name School of Co-operation.
In 1967, the Co-operative College of Kenya was born with 40 students at Allen Road, which later became a constituent college of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in 2012, and was awarded a full university charter on 6 October 2016 by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Today, the university offers a diverse range of programmes to over 8,000 students, from certificates and diplomas to undergraduate, postgraduate, and professional development courses.
Prof Ngamau was appointed vice chancellor in May 2018 after rising through the ranks at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) from assistant lecturer in 1993 to full professor of horticulture by 2013. He holds a PhD in horticultural sciences from the University of Hanover, Germany, and masters degrees from the University of Nairobi and USIU Kenya.
For him, co-operative education is “an integrated learning model that deliberately combines academic instruction with practical, work-based experience”, often within cooperative enterprises or community-based economic structures.
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“It is anchored on the principles of participation, shared ownership and democratic governance, and geared towards solving real-world challenges,” he says.
“Unlike traditional university education, which lays more emphasis on theoretical knowledge and classroom-based learning, co-operative education is practical. It places learning within real economic and social systems, allowing students to co-create value while acquiring knowledge. It fuses knowledge with action.”
Co-operative education is embedded in the university’s DNA, adds Ngamau. “We promote values that align closely with the co-operative principles such as collective responsibility, ethical leadership, and community engagement. All our academic programmes in whatever field have co-operative training as a common unit to ensure that all students who pass through our university have the spirit of co-operativism instilled in them.
“Besides these, many of our programmes include work-integrated learning components, field attachments, and co-operative-based case studies. We emphasise interdisciplinary approaches that mirror co-operative systems. And we actively support student-led initiatives such as the formation of student-led
co-operatives, incubation hubs, and partnerships with co-operative societies to ensure learning is grounded in practice.”
At the university, students participate in designing and managing co-operative projects, often within the university setting. This could include savings groups, agribusiness initiatives, or innovation clusters and “provides hands-on governance and operational experience”.
Meanwhile, it also has structured engagement with many co-operative enterprises through memoranda of understanding. “These organisations allow our students to undertake internships, research, and consultancy projects,” says Ngamau.
These approaches ensure students “gain both entrepreneurial exposure and industry-level insight,” he adds – believing this is vital in today’s uncertain job market, which continues to be affected by rapid technological changes and a growing demand for adaptable professionals.
Prof Ngamau believes “co-operative training is the answer to many of the concerns of today, for it equips students with practical skills, fosters entrepreneurial thinking, builds collaborative and leadership competencies and enhances resilience”. He notes that many CUK graduates demonstrate higher levels of job readiness, with many transitioning seamlessly into employment or self-sustaining enterprises. “Most importantly, a significant number become job creators, particularly within the co-operative and MSMEs sectors.”
The university is a member of the ICA and ICA-Africa, and at the national level, is classified as a National Cooperative Organisation (NACO). It collaborates with continental and global
co-operative entities through research, conferences, and policy dialogue, and also partners with co-operative federations, government agencies, and regulatory bodies to align training with sector needs.
“With the Kenyan co-operative sector being devolved, we engage a lot with counties to train and capacitate them,” Ngamau adds. “We collaborate with peer universities, co-operative colleges and research institutions globally and nationally to exchange knowledge, co-develop curricula, and undertake joint research initiatives.
“These linkages ensure that our programmes remain relevant, globally informed, and locally impactful. For example we have an active collaboration with the Moshi Co-operative University in Tanzania.”
For him, one of the main challenges affecting co-operative education and the co-operative sector in general is perception.
“Co-operative education has become undervalued compared to other fields of study, which has created low uptake with co-operative programmes attracting fewer students,” he says.
“You notice also that there is a generational gap in co-operative societies’ membership. Not many youths are members of societies. For co-operative education to be meaningful, it must be strongly supported by sector players, something that has been lacking. You may also find that the curriculum is not aligned with the rapidly changing sector needs.”
To address this, he thinks there needs to be strong advocacy for policy support to recognise co-operative education and introduce it into mainstream education earlier. “There is also a need to strengthen industry-academia partnership not only in curriculum development and revision, but also in uptake of co-operative-trained graduates,” he adds.
Ngamau believes the co-operative model and its placement at the centre of CUK’s affairs “shows that a university can be a centre of knowledge generation and dissemination and an engine of socio-economic transformation”.
“Through our model, other universities can learn that it is possible for all programmes to contain a component of an institutional niche,” he says.
“Ours is co-operative education and we ensure all our students attain basics in co-operative development. A strong and sustained collaboration with industry is essential if an academic institution is to remain relevant both in training and participation in socio-economic development. Additionally, there is a need to create room for students to freely create, manage, and lead initiatives that significantly enhance learning outcomes.
“Co-operative education is already intersecting with digital innovation, green economies, and social enterprise. It will become a critical model for addressing 21st century challenges.”
