Single law to guide all varsities

All universities will operate under a single law if new proposals on higher education are passed by Parliament.

The proposals seek to expand the mandate of the Commission for Higher Education to include establishment of new universities, quality assurance and financing.

A new team will also be established to review salaries of university staff to ensure uniformity.

These are some of the highlights of proposals in the Universities Bill 2009, which were being discussed this week by experts in Nairobi.

They also discussed two other Bills — Science Technology and Innovation, and the Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training.
According to the Universities Bill 2009, an old provision that required any campus must have at least 50 acres has been repealed.

This is in recognition of the fact new information and communication technology has rendered land acreage and space unnecessary requirements in academics.

The new bill will see the repeal of eight pieces of legislation that currently govern the public universities.

“With this new piece of law, public and private universities will now operate under common regulations, which is good for ensuring quality and standards,” said Prof Freida Brown, vice-chancellor of the United States International University – Africa.

Private universities will also come under serious scrutiny under the new law.

A team of VCs, council members of various universities and higher education officials yesterday endorsed the Bills at the close of discussions.

The Universities Bill will bring on board fresh regulations in administration and management of both public and private universities in the country.

Lose autonomy

The public universities will lose their autonomy and the Commission of University Education (CUE) will oversee their governance and quality assurance issues.

Currently, programmes offered in the public universities cannot be challenged by Commission for Higher Education because they are formed by an Act of Parliament.

Under the new law, Commission for Higher Education shall be replaced by CUE, and mandated to deal with universities only. 

For the first time, there shall be a Public Universities Remuneration Committee to keep constant review of the scheme of service for staff.

This committee, whose members will be appointed by the minister for Higher Education, shall discuss the salaries of lecturers with their unions and other collective bargaining agreements.

In the draft ‘Science, Technology and Innovation law’, all institutions of higher education and training in the country will refocus their curricular, placing priority on emerging trends in science and technology.

Graduates of such colleges will thus be charged with the duty of steering an industrial change to sustain economic growth of 10 per cent annually in the next 25 years.

Technological base

“Strengthened Science, Mathematics and Language Skills will be critical in supporting Kenya’s scientific, engineering and technological base,” said Prof Crispus Kiamba, the permanent secretary for Higher Education.

The Acts for the creation of universities of Nairobi, Kenyatta, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta, Egerton, Maseno and Masinde Muliro will be annulled and changed into charters.

“University education services offered in Kenya shall be of quality and relevant,” says the Universities Bill 2009.

Another section of the law seeks to curb proliferation of commercial colleges that offer bogus courses.

Commission for Higher Education boss Everett Standa speaks of about 1,000 such colleges across the country.

The Technical, Industrial Vocational and Entrepreneurial Training Authority shall be charged with cracking down of the colleges.