Bill governing universities to be implemented

By Sam Otieno

Public universities will be subjected to inspection by the Government quality assurance body.

Among recommendations contained in a Bill being formulated by the Ministry of Higher Education is the introduction of one University Act to govern the existing and emerging universities.

Currently, each public university has its Act, which established the institution.

The existing Acts will then become charters under the one Universities Act.

The move was prompted by the number of emerging universities as well as the high demand for university education.

"Many universities are coming up and having 20 Acts establishing each does not make sense," Prof George Magoha, chairman of the vice-chancellors’ committee said in an interview with The Standard.

He added, "What the vice-chancellors of public universities are against is the lumping of universities into one Education Act but have one Universities Act".

Magoha said VC’s advocate for the autonomy of universities whose Acts would remain charters of the main Universities Act.

The charters will stipulate the appointment of a University Council, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Senate among other procedures.

Legal powers

The new Bill will also give legal powers to the Commission for Higher Education (CHE) to extend its supervisory and regulatory role to public universities.

The CHE has powers to register, regulate, supervise and inspect private institutions while the university councils and senate control the public universities.

Vice chancellors of public and private universities have welcomed the reforms, which they termed as long overdue.

"These are things that were supposed to be implemented two years ago," said Magoha, who is also the vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi.

"Public universities need to be policed. Some have gone overboard and allowed their names to be used by institutions that do not have capacity to provide university education," said Magoha.

The Standard learnt that the delay was as a result of shift in responsibilities from the Ministry of Education under Prof Sam Ongeri, which was handling the matter to that of Ministry of Higher Education under Dr Sally Kosgey.

He said if empowered, CHE would be the main quality assurance unit.

When the Bill comes to force, existing campuses will be re-inspected for upgrading to comply with the standards set by the CHE while new establishments will have to be vetted.

"So far the commission has largely dealt with private universities but the Government has taken a policy decision to extend its mandate to the public universities," said Prof Everet Standa, secretary and chief executive officer of CHE.

playing field

Standa said the move would allow a level playing field and a harmonised unitary national establishment, accreditation and quality assurance framework for the higher education sector.

"There has been a feeling that although the parallel degree programmes have increased access to university education, the expansion has been done without consideration to quality," said Standa.

The Vice-Chancellor of KCA University Daniel Oruoch described the move as timely.

"Public universities must be regulated," he said.

According to Dr Oruoch, the CHE should be strengthened with human resources who are dynamic in their thought process.

private universities

He said public universities have advantage over the private ones including processes of admission through the Joint Admissions Board.

"There must be ways of governing a level playing field," he said.

Standa, however, ruled out the closure of campuses that would not have conformed after the inspection.

The reforms will see universities establish quality assessment units, which produce annual reports on facilities, departments through the university senate for self-regulation processes.

Standa said the commission would also check on the workload for lecturers.

He said universities should offer internationally accepted standards even if it means offering one course.