Vice chancellors expressed dissatisfaction at a meeting to roll out the second phase of reforms in higher education

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i makes his keynote point at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies when he addressed all Vice Chancellors and University Commissioners of all Public Universities on the Growth and Development of Public Universities (Photo: Moses Omusula|Standard)

Vice Chancellors are not happy with how universities are being handled by Education CS Fred Matiang’i and the Commission for University Education.

This came out during a high profile meeting of at least 200 top players in education hosted by Matiang’i last week at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies to review growth of local public universities.

Laikipia University VC Prof Francis Lelo, expressed displeasure at how the regulator was handling universities as a single entity and summing them up in mistake that do not involve all of them.

“It is not right for all of us to be condemned in one basket. The government has mechanisms to zero in on individual universities that are committing these mistakes,” Prof Lelo said.

He said that the regulator had missed on the opportune moment to address universities that were being accused of replication of programmes.

“They should have been denied registration during award of charter. Now is not the time to address them. A born child cannot be taken back to its mother’s womb,” he said amid applause from his counterparts.

Prof Lelo also differed with reports that had indicated heads of public universities were pilfering millions in their coffers saying that universities were already charging students very little for tuition.

Chuka University VC, Prof Erastus Nyaga, was also unhappy with recommended reforms, added that academic staff needed some level of permanency.

“The reforms are not bad. But much as there is need for us to emulate other top performing countries on global standards, senior lecturers and professors need some form of permanency in our universities,” Prof Nyaga said.

Dr Matiang’i was categorical that recruitment in public universities would be on contract basis especially in filling positions of non-technical staff and low-cadre academic staff.

The Education Cabinet Secretary was specifically uncompromising on bloated workforce, financial mismanagement and governance disputes that he said continued to wreck public universities.

“How can we hire a person who cuts grass on permanent and pensionable terms? Some of these staff should be paid when they work,” Matiang’i voiced.

Reports emerged during the meeting, of a university whose ratio of technical to non-technical staff was 1:58. This implied that universities were holding onto staff that weighed heavily on their resources.

Matiang’i also warned against the careless establishment of universities and insisted that the ministry would not allow opening up of satellite campuses.

“Universities have become employment bureaus for relatives. That is why you find a university established on top of a butchery or a bar in every little shopping centre. We have to stop this,” Matiang’i blurted. 

Matiang’i said that he was aware of instances where VCs and college principals were under pressure to hire people from communities they were operating in.

He called upon chairs of university councils to protect their VCs from community members and urged VCs to be cooperative with the council members as well.

He also gave Technical University of Kenya and Technical University of Mombasa up to January next year to clean up all the staff they had inherited from former technical institutions when they were accredited to become universities. 

“Some of these reforms will be painful but we must implement them. It is a tough and painful path but we are determined to take it. We are not going back on anything we have said today,” Matiang’i said. 

Matiang’i said the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was investigating criminal activities that had been committed in governance of universities and management of financial resources. He said that VCs who had engaged in any form wastage and corrupt activities would be taken to prison at the end of the investigations.

CUE chairman Chacha Nyaigoti Chacha observed that the commission had put measures in place to clean the rot in universities.

He insisted that universities would be required to prepare basic student records for accountability.

“Our focus will be on how student needs are mitigated especially in regard to their accommodation, learning infrastructure, and even diet,” Prof Chacha said.

He pleaded with universities to grow stronger academic-industry links for students to ensure that students graduated with, marketable skills.

Dedan Kimathi VC Prof Jane Nyakang’o sought to know who would be charged with ensuring the reforms were followed to the book.

“Besides, I came in this forum expecting guidelines on how to run the university. And now it seems I have been given an assignment to take home,” Prof Nyakang’o said