Treasury CS, Ukur Yatani, wants the Ministry of Education to devise measures to address financial constraints crippling public institutions in the country.
In his letter to Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, Yatani asked his colleague to convene a meeting with university heads to discuss the endless financial crises.
Among the strategies Yatani wants to be implemented are a review of school fees and the liquidation of old assets. Treasury also recommended restructuring that could see satellite campuses closed as well as cutting costs by rationalizing their staff.
Yatani argued that the government was running out of funds and will not disburse more funds to the institutions.
“Given the need to come up with sustainable solutions to the problems facing universities and university colleges, the ministry has been advised to come up with policy recommendations that will address the existing problem," read the letter.
In addition, the Treasury advised public universities to consider innovating income-generating ideas to help create sustainable sources of revenue for universities.
The financial crisis, Yatani lamented, leads to frequent disruption of learning activities.
Universities have been struggling to implement collective bargaining agreements thus prompting strikes and demonstrations.
Mass layoffs of university workers have also been rampant as the institutions seek to reduce their wage bills.
Last week Moi University issued a notice that could signal imminent retrenchment of staff.
Institutions also resorted to restructuring to cut unnecessary costs. The University of Nairobi (UoN) led in shutting down some of its campuses.
In 2O21, UoN abolished eight colleges and reduced its faculties from 35 to 11.
Some universities launched technical and vocational education and training (TVETS) to raise more funds.
The institutions have suffered a significant loss of revenue since the government lowered the entry points for degrees to a minimum of C+. This led to the loss of revenue collected from self-sponsored students pursuing parallel degrees.
An increment in school fees could also lead to further constraints such as students that have plagued universities for years.
