Will our public universities survive these radical reforms taking place?

Not long ago, I argued here that tectonic transformations and shifts in the higher education sector have ushered in a new era for universities in Kenya.

Indeed, this was confirmed in an urgently convened meeting on the review of the growth and development of public universities last week.

During the meeting that brought together council chairmen of public universities, vice-chancellors, principals of constituent colleges and other stakeholders, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i announced the start of the second phase of reforms with a raft of directives that will not only be painful, but will also engineer a paradigm shift in the management of public universities.

TRACK SYSTEM

In these uncharted waters, as one of the stakeholders at the meeting remarked, it is not the strong who will survive but those who will accept change.

It is now almost official that universities will introduce a tenure track system of employing academic staff.

We will, therefore, have employment at two levels: Tenured and tenure-track faculty and non-tenure-track faculty.

The tenured and tenure-track faculty may comprise individuals holding the ranks of associate professor and professor.

This basically means that employees below the position of associate professor may comprise non-tenure-track faculty.

The implication is that most of the lecturers in public universities will be employed on contract! The progress to tenure track will depend on productivity.

It is possible to see that this arrangement will strongly be opposed by unions who may initiate a series of litigations.

UNDER-FUNDED

It has been acknowledged that public universities are under-funded by the exchequer and they stand precariously on a cliff of disaster.

In the past, in their desperation to survive and generate income, institutions opened unviable outposts, some of which are a mockery to university education.

To protect the integrity of our university qualifications, the Cabinet Secretary has slapped a ban on establishment of new campuses in and outside the country.

On its part, the Commission for University Education (CUE) has developed standards that will see most of these outposts closed down.

This puts universities between a rock and a hard place.

It is the CS’s view that the cheating that used to happen in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination created an artificial demand for university education.

But after measures were put in place to curb cheating, the era of universities going ballistic in admitting privately sponsored students is over.

STANDARDS

So what is the way forward for our universities? Universities will have to develop better methods of survival that do not compromise standards.

First, the government has to increase funding. But more significantly, universities have to brand to attract both local and international students — with new strategies and better visibility.

In the same vein, institutions with strong niche areas in specialised fields will be able to survive the turmoil of the coming years.

Universities have to be known for something. If Egerton University, for example, is known for programmes in agriculture, then it has to strengthen itself in the area and become a centre for excellence.

Why should any other university attempt to establish programmes in petroleum engineering, gas and oil instead of Turkana University College?

The bottom line is that universities have to brand along lines of their strength and produce quality graduates and meaningful research outputs.

The battle is no longer on opening of satellite campuses but on producing quality graduates, research outputs, attraction of research funds and customer satisfaction.

Universities have to diversify their sources of income and increase allocation of funds to research.

NEW POLICY

More importantly, they will have to focus more on quality than quantity and put in place structures that will ensure that they produce graduates that meet the expectations of the industry.

We have to engage industry much more in provision of hands-on apprenticeship programmes.
There is another shocker in the offing. The new policy on financing universities based on unit cost is being implemented to replace the old model. In this arrangement, new unpleasant realities are awaiting universities.

My initial reaction to this policy being implemented by the Universities Funding Board (UFB) is that it comes with a variety of challenges that will see many of the universities that enjoyed higher capitation suffer serious cuts.

But there is a need for serious rethinking of any model of funding.

It is also important to address historical injustices in allocating funds. The idea of visualising Kenya as one homogeneous nation where one standard model applies may not be useful.

The social realities in marginalised areas like northern Kenya present a challenge to equity that should be examined closely and an equalising fund established for such regions.

Prof Kabaji is the Founding Principal of Turkana University College. [email protected]