Radical Changes to Streamline the Management of Public Universities :: Kenya

The Ministry of Education implements profound changes will reshape the management of public universities.

This faces the rise of nepotism in the recruitment of senior officials.

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The Secretary of Education Cabinet Amina Mohamed formed a special team of ministry officials who will review the proposed lists of vice chancellors advice – to ensure that elected officials go through a hidden process.

The Land Tenure Review Committee will also review the proposed lists of badistant vice-rectors of public universities and directors of constituent colleges.

"The committee also occupies the appointment of councils and chancellors of public universities," says a report on the status of university education in Kenya prepared by outgoing Principal Secretary Micheni Ntiba.

According to the document, the committee chaired by the career civil servant and director of administration Peter Okwanyo was formed following the finding that there was no clear procedure on the treatment nominations for vice-chancellors, directors and their deputies. false news! Subscribe to the standard SMS service and receive factual news and verified in real time. Text the word & # 39; NEWS & # 39; at 22840

"The Tenure Review Committee meets regularly to review proposals and make recommendations to the Principal Secretary and the Secretary of the Cabinet, thereby facilitating nominations or recommendations for appointment to the President in the case of Chancellor Chancellor positions." .
The document states that the 13-member team will meet regularly to process proposals.

This is a series of changes initiated by Amina and Ntiba since they were appointed to the ministry in January.

The PS however returned to his fisheries office while his place was occupied by Professor Collette Suda who left the post only in January.

According to the document, the ministry will establish a database of candidates to be appointed to the university councils and chancery. Already, the department advertised for the positions of chairpersons and board members.

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This means that once the mandates of presidents or councils of any university have pbaded, the ministry will only have to turn to his database to appoint members to the respective institution.

In addition, Amina plans to end the practice of appointing all members of the University Council at the same time, instead adopting a phased approach to ensure that the terms of office of public servants end at various times to maintain the quorum to manage. the affairs of the institutions.

Such an initiative will help prevent crises like that of the University of Nairobi, where the delayed appointment of board members has derailed the affairs of the institution for more than a year.

Under the new rules, people who actively teach at universities and who work in research organizations will not be appointed to university and college boards.

According to the report, this measure was taken after the department detected serious cases of conflict of interest from board members who were also staff members of certain universities and colleges.

"In one of the universities, the Chancellor and the President (of the council) are active members of the academic staff of another university and a conflict arose over the appointment of a new vice-chancellor who worries the entire university community ". says the report.

He adds: "The intelligence reports indicate that the Chancellor is organizing students to protest the nomination of candidates as résumés stemming from interviews conducted by the council."

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The document speaks of the ministry's willingness to address the concerns of the 600,000 in all public universities with the establishment of a student affairs directorate to deal with the problems .

Moved the function

"He (management) will tackle the myriad of challenges they face and will only manifest themselves during strikes," the report says.

The paper indicates that management would work continuously with universities and help students understand their roles as leaders and citizens instead of coming to the ministry when things are out of control.

The CS also moved the appointment function of the State Department 's education attachés for preschool education and basic education to university education. This follows the realization that the attachés played roles related to higher education.

It further restructured the PS representation for university education to boards by appointing officials from other state departments to roles.

Under the arrangement, all major secretaries were appointed to various boards in four major universities.