• Ministry had given universities three months to list ofthe institutions to be merged.
• Lecturers say merger will disrupt government's 100 per cent transition directive.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
Lecturers have asked Education CS George Magoha to form a task force to advise on merging public universities.
The ministry had given universities three months to prepare a list of the institutions to be merged and those to be shut down.
At a meeting with vice chancellors and finance officers of the 31 public universities and seven university colleges on Thursday, Magoha asked the administrators to lay the ground for the drastic measures.
The VCs are expected to come up with the number of academic or non-academic staff to be laid off, the programmes to be merged and campuses to be closed.
“The ministry has no policy framework on the directive. How much money has the CS put aside to pay the people he is proposing to be laid off?” Uasu secretary general Constantine Wasonga asked.
“The time of giving roadside proclamations ended with Kanu. In Kenya, no public university has ever been merged with another.”
According to the officials, the national executive committee requires that any proposal for change involves vigorous participation among all the key stakeholders including the lecturers and students.
The union expressed concern that most of the old universities were going through financial hardships and merging them with young ones that are doing well will transfer the burden.
"It is no secret that the University of Nairobi, Moi, Egerton, Jkuat and Kenyatta University are all insolvent. So who should join who? Now you are telling those universities that are doing well to go and join them. What kind of thinking is that?” Wasonga posed.
The union is of the opinion that the move by the government is meant to avoid its responsibility of financing higher education.
They now want the admission of state-sponsored students to private universities stopped, noting that the government cannot lack funds for public universities but afford to pump a lot into private institutions unless they have shares in some of them.
They also want VCs to be allowed to increase university fees, saying the current Sh16,000 per semester is cheaper than what some nursery schools in Nairobi are charging.
“This government needs these universities. You are talking about 100 per cent transition at the same time you want to pull some universities down. Where will those students go to?”
They said by 2030, Kenya will have more than one million students requiring more than 100 universities, so state has to figure out how they will be accommodated.
Wesonga further noted some universities have embarked on eliminating some disciplines in anticipation of the proposed mergers, a move he says will reduce the choices of courses available to the students, impacting negatively on academic staff and the quality of higher education.
They maintained that the process must be agreed upon and be voluntary.
Edited by R.Wamochie