While speaking during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Nyayo Stadium on Monday, December 12, President William Ruto handed the attendees free scholarships from Arizona State University.
The Head of State said the 16-unit course would have costed Kenyans Ksh 100,000 but the government had taken care of it.
Attendees of the fete accessed the free course by scanning a QR code posted at the stadium.
The course was offered by Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University which offers programs designed to prepare students to navigate the dynamic digital world.
Here is what WoK gathered about the university behind the free scholarships.
Establishment
Arizona State University, abbreviated as ASU, was founded in March 1885, 27 years before Arizona became a state.
The institution was founded as Territorial Normal School under the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature to serve as a training school for teachers in Arizona.
At the moment, it is among the largest public universities in terms of enrollment in the United States.
At the time of its establishment, the campus consisted of a single four-room schoolhouse and sat on a 20-acre plot donated by Tempe residents.
Classes officially began in 1886 and by the time it was given an all-college student status, the institution’s name had been changed several times and new courses introduced.
The school’s name was changed to Arizona State College in 1945, and finally to Arizona State University in 1958 and it has since remained unchanged.
Campuses
The university has four campuses spread across the US offering different academic programs.
For instance, the Tempe campus is the institution’s research and graduate school, while the Polytechnic campus offers professional and technological programs.
On the other hand, the West campus is focused on interdisciplinary degrees and the liberal arts and the Downtown Phoenix campus focuses on direct urban and public programs.
The university recently opened a new campus dubbed ASU-Mayo Medical School campus which offers nursing and health related programs.
The institution also has a virtual campus at its SkySong Innovation Center which offers online and extended education.
Thunderbird School of Global Management is also one of the newest units of Arizona State University; it is this institution that provided free scholarships to Kenyans who graced the Jamhuri Day fete.
ASU offers undergraduate, graduate and online academic programs.
It offers over 350 majors to undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs and also offers the 4+1 accelerated program, which allows students in their senior year to attain their master’s degree the following year.
ASU is recognized worldwide by the ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects in six subject areas that rank in the top 25.
The rankings include management, public administration, environmental science and engineering, business administration, economics and education.
Students at the institution are served by nine libraries spread across five campuses which hold 4.5 million volumes.
ASU system is ranked the 34th largest research library in the United States and Canada, according to criteria established by the Association of Research Libraries that measures various aspects of quality and size of the collection.