Making the University relevant to society

Abstract

There is need to change the narrative on Kenyan universities. Quality is an issue giving rise to hard questions. What are the standards of measurements? What ails the universities? What purposes does the university serve and how do we make it relevant?

If there was quality, it began to fall during the span of my thirty years of university teaching. People of my generation, and those after me, should take full responsibility for the falling standards in the university. My Masters Supervisor Prof Michael Darkoh, passed on the baton to me to pursue economic geography and I have tried to pursue it amidst great odds. While he lived in university housing close to his place of work, the University of Nairobi recruited and then failed to house me. I settled in Zimmerman and had to take a matatu (minibus) to work everyday. He took his children to St Marys, I could not afford to do so.

Key words: University, relevance, quality, education, Kenya