• In her PhD, she sought to understand why students register for courses but drop out or change courses midway. 

• She also sought to find out how counseling psychology can help the students overcome the challenges they encounter in their studies.

Mount Kenya University co-founder Jane Nyutu last week graduated with a doctorate in counselling psychology, adding another feather to her cap. 

Nyutu, who co-founded MKU alongside Prof Simon Gicharu, earned her PhD from Kenyatta University.

She researched how counseling psychology can help university students overcome the challenges they encounter in their studies.

Nyutu worked with medical students on her PhD thesis titled ‘The Effectiveness of Counselling Services on Academic Performance and Retention Rates’.

She sought to understand why students register for courses but drop out or change midway. 

She focused on students studying medicine and surgery, where she observed a huge drop-out rate before graduation.

During the yearlong research, Nyutu supported the students through counseling; including how to approach their studies, handling societal expectations and even failure as well as such areas such as financial management. 

“Over time, students register for medicine in big numbers but some end up dropping out, others transfer courses and others are discontinued. I wanted to find out what we as counsellors can do to ensure that when students join universities they read and graduate successfully and in good time,” she said.