Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has directed austerity measures that will free funds to invest in academic projects.
Prof Magoha also wants universities to merge to ensure full potential.
The merger of universities and campuses as well review of academic courses means that some staff will have to be let off.
Job cuts loom in 74 universities after Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Monday directed austerity measures that will free funds to invest in academic projects.
The tough raft of measures that Prof Magoha wants the universities to implement include sacking of non-essential staff, merging universities and courses. This came as universities renewed their call for an increase in fees from to Sh48,000 from the current Sh16,000 — which has remained unchanged since 1995.
Prof Magoha also wants universities to merge to ensure full potential.
“If possible, existing universities and campuses can be consolidated for maximum utilisation,” said Prof Magoha when he opened a two-day conference on Kenya’s higher education in Nairobi, which top university managers attended.
The merger of universities and campuses as well review of academic courses means that some staff will have to be let off.
Public universities have 27,000 staff with 9,000 being lecturers.
Since 2016, several campuses have been shut across the country after lower entry grade cut student population, adversely affecting the lucrative parallel degree programmes in which students paid fees based on market rates.
The universities have been the hardest hit by the sharp drop in the number Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education candidates scoring the C+ and above grade required for university entry, further worsening its cash flow.
University enrolment
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows university enrolment decreased to 426,965 last year from 452,494 in 2016 — a decline of 25,529.
Some of the universities that have shut some of their campuses include Kisii, Laikipia, Moi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya Methodist University, Catholic University of East Africa and the University of Baraton. Others are Co-operative (Meru), Kabarak (Nairobi) and South Eastern Kenya University (Nairobi).
The minister also called for the freeze on the establishment of new universities and satellite campuses as well as consolidating similar academic programmes. This, Prof Magoha said, would ensure efficiency in utilising existing resources.
He also wants universities to specialise in academic programmes in which they are relatively strong at offering.
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