The vision of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences reads: "To be a leading unit within the University that promotes academic achievement and excellence in teaching, training, research and consultancy in the Humanities and Social Sciences". Pursuant to this vision, the College constantly monitors developments in its environment and in the world at large. This provides it with societal trends and changes both at home and abroad. The awareness gained enables the College to respond to trends and changes by introducing new academic programmes or modifying existing ones to meet current demand. To this end, the College has recently launched market driven postgraduate degree programmes including MSc in Health Economics, M.A. Multi-Lateral Trading Systems, MA in Translation, MA in interpretation, Masters in Public Administration, MSc. Finance, MSc. Marketing, MSc. Human Resource Management and MSc. in Entrepreneurship and Innovations Management.
A second example is the launch on 5th of January, 2007, of Distance Learning by the School of Business and the faculty of Arts. This will go along way towards meeting the needs of people keen to pursue courses offered by the School but without opportunities to attend classes at the University. Finally, the origins of the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi can be traced back to the growing importance of the Peoples Republic of China in World affairs. The Institute offers certificate courses in Chinese Language and Culture. The College has entered into a collaboration with Tianjin Normal University with exchange of staff whereby lecturers from Tianjin teach Chinese at Nairobi and those from Nairobi teach Kiswahili at Tianjin Normal University. Locally, the College is collaborating with Kenya Utalii College to offer Hospitality and Tourism Management Courses.
Other Institutions the College is collaborating with to offer degree programmes include the Kenya School of Government, formally known as Kenya Institute of Administration, and the National Defence College.
The College has several collaboration links with other institutions across the globe and it is our intention to actively seek to collaborate with more institutions in the future.
The College is always striving to improve the contents of its courses as well as the methods of delivery. In a continuing exercise, eighteen computer laboratories have been created across the college during the last two years. Connectivity of lecturers' offices to the Internet is also going on. There are measures, which will not only give students access to electronic library services but also make delivery of lectures easier and more effective. The College has launched hot spots within a radius of 200m in all its campuses to enhance internet connectivity through wi-fi.
The welfare of students is a matter of priority in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Consequently, living conditions in the Halls of Residence along with the general environment around the halls are being constantly addressed. The College is also making efforts to improve sports and games facilities to ensure that every student is given an opportunity to participate in games and sporting activities in all its campuses.
