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Abstract

University education is the epitome of education that countries leverage for the delivery of national strategic plans, through the creation of skilled workforce for socio-economic development. Kenyan public universities have experienced massification in the past three decades, a phenomenon resulting from the democratization of education, the advent of knowledge economy, and globalization. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the consequences of massification caused Juakalization in higher education in Kenya. Juakalization is the dilution and conversion of high quality university education to assume an artisan nature of mass production of low quality and unstandardized educational product. The study used a systematic review of literature and public documents to analyze the consequences of massification in Kenya's higher education. Findings indicate that the consequences of massification of overcapacity and insufficient infrastructure led to mass production of a low quality non-standardized university product. The researcher compares the Kenyan Jua Kali artisan production process to that of higher education, where both work under adverse conditions to produce mass low quality products. This analogy acts as a metaphor to describe the dilution and conversion of higher education to that of artisanship and coins the term Juakalization to describe this process in higher education.