University Reforms: Parents, Students to Face Tough Times
The Kenyan government is planning radical reforms to save public universities from bankruptcy, which will impact students, staff, and parents.
President William Ruto announced that there are no immediate plans to increase tuition fees despite a resolution to raise the fee from KES16,000 to KES48,000 for new students joining in September.
The reforms include the scrapping of unattractive courses, closing satellite campuses, merging institutions, and rationalising staff to reduce costs.
The reduction in the number of government-sponsored students will mean that families will have to pay more to send their children to university.
The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has delayed placement for over 173,000 qualified students in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam, as they await funding and program directions.
An audit conducted by regulators before student placement in 2019 revealed that 133 courses were rejected, and 98 university programs had no students because none qualified or were placed elsewhere.
A dozen programs received no interest at all. The then-Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, challenged vice-chancellors to redeploy or lay off staff whose academic programs were no longer relevant.
He also questioned the logic of having four to five universities within a 30- to 40-square-kilometer radius.
The closure of satellite campuses and the axing of unattractive courses was halted by vested interests but has now returned as a feasible option since the universities are broke.
Higher Education and Research Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala told MPs that the ministry has met with vice-chancellors to discuss the measures needed to turn their fortunes around.
Universities should scrap degree courses that do not attract many students and close unviable satellite campuses. Egerton University scrapped eight degree programs, and the jobs of 200 employees are now at risk.
Dr Inyangala said that the process of staff rationalisation would be done in an orderly manner, and those affected would be properly informed.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) presented an interim report last month, which mainly centered on higher education.
The reforms on degree programs and staff rationalisation will be implemented by universities at the individual level. The final report is expected at the end of the month.
The University of Nairobi has reduced its academic programs from 500 to 325, with postgraduate courses being the most affected.
The number of undergraduate courses has also been reduced from 72 to 56. According to the Vice-Chancellor, Stephen Kiama, the content of the canceled courses will be used to enhance other courses, as no knowledge is considered useless.
The university has also closed all its satellite campuses due to the high cost of facilitating lecturers to teach a small number of students.
The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the State Department for University Education and Research, Prof.
Collette Suda, challenged public universities to raise more funds by increasing their research capacity and leveraging technology to offer some of their courses and operations.
She also suggested that universities in close proximity should share infrastructure such as laboratories to minimize costs. Additionally, public universities should be more aggressive in sourcing donor funds to meet their financial obligations.
The University Funding Board (UFB) is currently financing 35 public universities and four constituent colleges through the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model, whereby funding is based on the cost of mounting a degree program.
According to the model, the government should provide 80% of the funding while universities and students should cover the remaining 20%.
However, the government has not been able to meet its obligations fully, leading to financial constraints in public universities.
MPs have called on the government to extend more grants to public universities, as it does to private universities.
They also want all government-sponsored students to be enrolled in public universities so that the Higher Education Loans Board can channel their capitation to the accounts of public universities.
The committee believes that it is not reasonable for public universities to continue experiencing financial difficulties while public funds are being used to finance private universities, which operate only to make profits.
In conclusion, public universities in Kenya face financial constraints due to insufficient government funding, which has led to the reduction of academic programs and the closure of satellite campuses.
The government is being urged to provide more funding to public universities and to support their research capacity. Sharing infrastructure among universities in close proximity is also being recommended to minimize costs.
University Reforms: Parents, Students to Face Tough Times
