Boasting of about seven public universities and eleven private chartered universities, Kenya will now have more room to establish more universities if the new proposed bill is enacted to law.
The new law seeks to expand the mandate of the commission of higher education and thus a special commission for university education will be created.
In an experts meeting including all vice chancellors, the universities Bill 2009 was set up with some old provisions being scraped off. The provision that required every campus to have at least 50 acres of land and space has been repealed citing it irrelevant in academic matters.
The new bill will see the repeal of eight pieces of legislation that currently govern the public universities.
The new law will see both private and public universities under common regulations, which is good for ensuring quality standards. Private universities will also be seriously scrutinized under the new law.
The commission for university education will take the mandate of looking onto governance and quality assurance issues. It will be the onset of public universities remuneration committees to keep constant review of staff remuneration and schemes of service.
The committee will be appointed by the minister for higher education and will look onto union issues and other bargaining agreements.
The acts of parliament that set the creation of Moi, Nairobi, Kenyatta, Masinde Muliro, Maseno and Egerton universities will be changed to charters. The Kenyan university education will be of quality and relevance as per the universities bill 2009.
The experts meeting that saw the onset of the bill was attended by council members, V.C’s and other officials from universities as well as the right permanent secretary for higher education Prof, Crispus Kiamba, in Nairobi.
New law for varsities BY KARIITHI PATRICK
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