Panic as varsities staff face job cut

Chairman Commission of University Education Prof Nyaigoti Chacha Nyaigoti (left) and Prof Richard Muga

?The spectre of empty lecture halls in public universities has made the threat of job cuts suddenly very real.

The revelation that 544 out of the 1,382 academic programmes admitted either none or not more than nine students means it is only a matter of when, not if, the 31 public universities and seven constituent colleges send employees packing.

Given the unprecedented situation, students enrolled this year may be allowed to complete their studies but there will be no new admissions.

Courses that have no students may be scrapped altogether while those with few learners may opt for consolidation by moving them to one institution. This will inevitably lead to redundancies because each course has as many lecturers as the number of units, backed by the necessary support staff.

Commission for University Education (CUE) chairman Chacha Nyaigoti said they were concerned about the development and had “advised the Government accordingly”.

Discuss advisory

“We don’t want to discuss our advisory because it is still under discussion,” said Chacha, adding that in other jurisdictions, affected staff are either sacked or retrained in other areas.

The development puts pressure on universities, which are struggling to secure funds after revenue generated from privately-sponsored students all but dried up. Placement data reveals that the number of students attaining the minimum university entry grade of C+ is on the decline. In the last two years, all qualified students have been absorbed into Government-sponsored degree programmes.

It is a difficult situation for university managers, with the Universities Funding Board going back to the drawing board to decide which programmes will receive Government funding.

This means that while 27,798 university workers push for higher pay and enhanced perks, some of their jobs are on the line. There are 8,294 teaching staff in all public universities under the Universities Academic Staff Union while Kenya Universities Staff Union has 11,292 members. The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers has 8,211 members.

The staff were employed based on student numbers and a dip in enrollment affects their jobs.

The admissions data shows that of the 606,394 candidates who sat the 2017 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams, only 69,151 scored a mean grade of C+. A total of 62,851 candidates were successfully placed in degree courses of their choice.

Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service CEO John Muraguri said only 5,747 students who scored C+ and above did not secure university slots.

“However, of these, 2,128 did not apply at all, while 3,619 applied but could not competitively secure placement,” he said.

Damning data

The damning admissions data puts CUE on the spot over how well it enforces standards. An audit it conducted in 2016 revealed that the institutions had introduced many courses, most of which were narrow in scope and not market driven.

The report titled State of University Education further found striking similarities between programmes, resulting in thinner classes and saturation of certain skill sets.

Anne Nangulu, CUE’s deputy CEO in charge of quality, audit and standards, blamed the enactment of the Universities Act for the mess. Prof Nangulu said the Act gave university senates a lot of power to mount programmes, some of which were “copied and pasted”.

“Some of them feel that the more they launch, the more they will have self-sponsored students,” she said.

Nangulu said constituent colleges have made matters worse by lifting programmes from the mother universities instead of investing in developing new curriculums.

The Standard established yesterday evening that the Government has already formed an inter-ministerial committee to, among other things, review human resource management policies and practices. The team will also review student enrollment for undergraduate and graduate courses, and advise on availability and adequacy of teaching, learning and accommodation facilities in universities.

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