The World Bank is pushing for the merger of public universities in the country due to the financial turmoils that is being experienced by the institutions of higher learning.
In a report by a local publication on Tuesday, November 17, it was revealed that the World Bank through an advisory to the government, cautioned that there was a need for the government to carry out urgent reforms in the sector, which has been rocked with debt for the past few years.
The advisory by the top financial institution barely come months after the Treasury revealed that the universities were facing a deficit of Ksh6 billion in their funding.
“Address the proliferation of state-owned companies (SCs) and rationalise commercial and non-commercial SCs. For example, measures to address overlapping mandates and consolidating SCs in the education sector could improve the efficiency of public spending on higher education and reduce spending pressures," the World Bank cautioned.
Additionally, the global financial institution noted that there were several instances of duplication of courses in the universities.
In explaining their push, the World Bank stated that some of the universities had made losses for three consecutive years, adding that it was clear that the financial situation of the countries needed to be addressed with urgency.
Further, the institution explained that the merger would be beneficial to the government as the universities will move towards a self-reliant financial model.
"Accelerating the commercial SCs rationalisation agenda could help plug losses to the exchequer while increasing overall economic efficiency. A focus could be placed on systematically poorly performing SCs that have recorded persistent losses for an extended period of three years," the World Bank advised.
Among the universities that are experiencing a major financial crunch include the University of Nairobi (UoN), Kenyatta University (KU), and Moi University.
In a report to the National Assembly, the treasury revealed that out of the Ksh6 billion funding deficit in the universities, UON, and KU had a deficit amounting to Ksh2 billion. This deficit has forced the universities to look for alternative means for securing funding.
In recent months, there has been an uproar after the University of Nairobi increased their tuition fees for most of their courses which saw some of the parallel courses’ tuition fees doubled.
If the advisory is implemented, it is unclear what will happen to the academic and support staff in the universities who are reported to be over 36,000. The financial struggles at the universities have been blamed on the bloating payroll of the university staff.
Lecturers from some of the public universities have gone on strike over the failure of the universities’ management to implement the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
