Improve terms or lose academics, vice-chancellor warns

Kenya could be headed for a fresh round of showdowns over academic salaries. University of Nairobi Vice-chancellor Professor George Magoha wants the government to review the remuneration of academics to “reflect the critical role they play in social and economic development”.

Speaking on 6 December at the university’s 50th graduation ceremony, Magoha said that reviewing lecturers’ terms would help increase productivity.

He called on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, or SRC – an agency formed three years ago to set pay for all public officers – to hasten the renumeration framework for university staff and effect current collective bargaining agreements to boost morale.

This would also help to stem a serious brain drain, especially to more developed economies, said Magoha, who heads Kenya's second largest university by student numbers.

“It is ironical that the proposed remuneration for members of the county assemblies pits their pay higher than that of scholars, yet it takes a lot more investment to nurture an academician.”

The SRC is currently evaluating jobs across the entire public sector in order to come up with a pay structure for the police, teachers and lecturers, civil servants, doctors, nurses and workers in state corporations.

Lecturer pay and deteriorating conditions

In August, the government moved to forestall a looming strike by increasing lecturer pay by US$45 million. That was part of a collective bargaining agreement between lecturers and the government last year.

Professors now earn a basic salary of US$2,500 a month, up from US$1,900, excluding a house allowance. The lowest paid tutorial fellows earn $847, up from US$635.

Low pay is being blamed for an exodus of lecturers from Kenyan universities, not only to Europe and North America but also to countries such as Botswana, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, where academics are paid better and handle lower numbers of students per class.

In Tanzania, the average monthly salary of a lecturer is around US$3,000.

Apart from poor pay, lecturers complain of lack of time to concentrate on research because of undergraduate teaching commitments. Academics are grappling with increased workloads arising from a surge in student numbers, which have grown faster than the teaching workforce.

Educationists say that a shortage of qualified lecturers and low morale among academics due to low pay are hurting the quality of learning. This is forcing many universities to hire under-qualified staff for academic positions.

Data from the Universities Academic Staff Union show that there are 8,000 lecturers – up from 7,000 four years ago. But during the same period, student enrolment grew from 91,541 to 200,000.

Experts and university administrators have argued that rising enrolment can only be handled if government pumps in more funds to hire extra tutors and improve pay for the teaching force, to boost morale.

A 2012 survey by the Commission for University Education showed that universities were being crippled by an acute shortage of professors, with institutions increasingly turning to part-time lecturers to address the shortfall. There were then only 352 professors in Kenya.

University of Nairobi

Magoha disclosed that the University of Nairobi would continue investing in infrastructure modernisation and expansion to cope with rising admissions. Currently the university has a student population of 70,000.

He noted that its fixed assets had grown to over US$1.2 billion – up US$117 million over the past 10 years. During the graduation, 9,000 degrees were conferred, increasing the number of alumni to 160,000.

Council chair Dr Idle Farah said the institution’s annual research kitty had grown considerably to US$41.2 million. “Our scholars are playing active roles in the foundation and implementation of policies and programmes that seek to address societal and universal issues.

“This clearly demonstrates our scholars’ commitment to debunk myths that universities have degenerated into teaching institutions rather than research institutions,” he said.