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Preamble

There is a great need for adequately prepared personnel at the postgraduate level to provide guidance and counselling services to the schools, industries other mental caretaker partners and institutions. This is necessitated by the emerging issues of discipline and the evolution of behavioural modification and mental care approaches in the society. The Counsellor education programme places a dual emphasis on the development of professional school counsellors and on the academic/scholarly aspects of the counselling profession. Students are provided with an opportunity for practical experience in a variety of settings.  Counsellor education graduates are prepared to entry level positions as counsellors in Secondary Schools. Graduates are educational leaders who are able to promote and enhance student living through three broad and inter-related areas of student development ? academic, career, and personal / social.  Graduates are skilled in the primary delivery methods for effective school counselling programmes, counselling, consultation, collaboration, coordination, case management, guidance curriculum and programme evaluation.

Justification

Kenya, as a rapidly developing society, is undergoing drastic social, economic and educational changes.  Consequently, the problems brought about by these changes have made guidance and counselling services in Kenya educational institutions a necessary component of educational system.  There is clear demand for guidance and counselling services in the community. This is due to the decline of traditional sources of guidance and counselling to assist children, students, and youth to develop decision making skills to enhance their transition from the protective home and school environment into the complex world of work. It is expected that the Master?s Degree Programme shall provide highly trained counsellors needed for primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, universities and other institutions.

Objectives

The programme is set to provide a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of guidance and counselling.

Specific Objectives

The programme should:

1. Develop effective communication skills and inter-personal relationships.
2. Enable the graduate identify and specify client problems and needs.
3. Impart skills in selected individual and group guidance and group counselling methods.
4. Provide the graduate with skills in psychological measurement and evaluation techniques.
5. Impart consultation skills in guidance and counselling.
6. Enable the graduate to organize and administer a programme of guidance and counselling services.
7. Provide skills and techniques to conduct research in guidance and counselling.
8. Enable counsellors to demonstrate social sensitivity in their approach and keep in touch with national trends and needs.
9. Train stakeholder groups like NGOs, industries, hospitals, mental care units, and private practitioners in guidance and counselling.

Admissions

4.1       Candidates must satisfy entry requirements for Egerton University. In addition admission shall be offered to holders of first degree in Education, with at least upper second class honors or an equivalent qualification from a recognized institution by Egerton University.

4.2       Under special circumstances, admission may be offered to holders of a first degree with a lower second class honors and relevant experience in research or teaching at an institution of higher learning recognized by the Senate.

4.3       Provision status of admission shall be granted to applicants who have upper second class honors or equivalent but lack undergraduate courses considered essential for graduate study in the major field.

4.4       Provision status shall not qualify the applicant to be eligible for appointment to an assistantship or award of a fellowship by the university.

4.5       Full graduate standing shall be granted when provisional status are corrected, within the first semester of their Master?s academic year or before, provided the student has maintained satisfactory academic record of ?C? average and above in Psychology course work taken in graduate classification.

Duration of Study

5.1       Full-time candidates shall be registered for a minimum of eighteen (18) months and a maximum of thirty six (36) months, and registered for a minimum of (9) credit factors (CF) per semester.

5.2       Part-time candidates shall be registered as students for a maximum of (4) academic years, and must register for a minimum of six (6) credit factors per semester.

5.3       Full-time candidates shall be required to spend the first twelve months of study in residence at the university.

University Rules and Regulations for the Master?s of Education Degree Programme

The common university rules and regulations for the Master?s Degree programme specified in the Egerton University Statutes shall be applicable.

Degree Structure

There shall be two options for a Masters degree programme in Guidance and Counselling which shall be by:

1. Course work, examination, practicum and thesis.
2. Course work, examination, practicum and project.

Under the first option, candidates shall be required to successfully complete thirty (30) credit factors of course work and practicum and successfully complete a thesis worth fifteen (15) credit factors to qualify for the award of Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Guidance and Counselling.  For those undertaking the second option, they shall be required to complete thirty nine (39) credit factors of course work, a practicum and a project worth six (6) credit factors.

Examiniations

8.1       All courses registered in each semester shall be examined at the end of the semester.

8.2       Examinations shall consist of continuous assessment which shall account 40% of the final grade and the end of semester examination which shall count 60% of the final grade.

8.3           Marks obtained in examinations shall be converted into grades as follows:

70% to 100%              =              A ? Very good

60% to 69%                =              B  - Good

50% to 59%                =              C  - Average

49% and below           =              F  - Fail

I     - Incomplete,         CR Credit Transfer

AU   - Audit                  P      - Pass

The passing grade shall be C in all courses attempted by a candidate.  However, the Candidate must obtain a minimum average grade of ?C? to continue with the programme.

Practicum

Students will be attached to schools, colleges or community agencies for a duration of one semester to practice guidance and counselling skills under supervision.  A practicum shall be assessed entirely by continuous assessment. This will be graded on a pass/fail basis.

Course Coding

All courses offered by the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling shall be coded EPSC.  This shall be followed by a course number of three digits.  The first digit (6 to 7) shall represent the first or second year of graduate study; the second digit denotes basic courses in the area of specialization and the last digit the sequence of the course in the area of specialization.

Basic course                                            1

Guidance and counselling                       2