Bitange Ndemo: Make higher education affordable by building entrepreneurial universities

University students countrywide are anxious that their fees will go up to help universities plug the deficit due to lack of capitation. Since inception, Kenya's system of higher education is dependent on the exchequer in terms of funding institutions' operations. The model however, is increasingly becoming unsustainable in the wake of an increasing population of students joining university.

The government has made clear indications that it will support hiking fees to finance university education. The decision is being made without the benefit of exploring other ideas that could make higher education affordable. But in a developing country like Kenya, even though there many problems, there are also many opportunities for entrepreneurship. Hence the need for entrepreneurial universities. 

The country can learn from some of the universities in the US. Besides teaching and doing research, they have introduced a third mission – creating entrepreneurial universities to drive innovation and entrepreneurship and they are succeeding – as part of their social mission to citizens.

KPIs must change

But for the mindset of university leadership to change from that of teaching and research to that of becoming part of the solution to economic development, the key performance indices (KPI) for leadership should also change.

Each university must show how many new jobs they have created in addition to their core activities. The mushrooming of innovation hubs within universities in Kenya is a clear indication that universities must become the center of enterprise creation.

This is not an entirely new concept given the fact that some of the most successful companies in this century were startups at Stanford University in the US. And this was mainly due to the institution having good engineering and business programmes that leveraged its alumni network and its own accelerator programme to help students come up with ideas that have changed the world. Some of the companies that were once startups at Stanford include Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Google and Yahoo.

Several other universities are embracing the idea of an entrepreneurial university to fund its own activities from their own creativity and innovations.  However, success as an entrepreneurial university does not mean producing large companies but a situation where they can make contribution to regional development to impact society.

Great potential

In Kenya, our universities have potential in creating social impact. For example, Technical University of Mombasa and Pwani University can lead the country in marine science and develop innovative ways to exploit marine resources. It is important to note that we import tuna from nations that trawl through our waters for the same. The KPI for universities should therefore be to know how much exports of marine resources contribute to GDP.

Similarly, Maseno and Rongo Universities should restock Lake Victoria with fish and develop new technologies for storage and marketing of the same to stem fish imports from China. Taita and Machakos universities should focus on developing and branding new products from dryland resources like Mangoes, oranges, grapes, pawpaw. There is opportunity in creating new industrial complexes to manufacture rare wines and concentrates for both local and international markets.

Universities within Nairobi city and its environs should focus on engineering, arts and sciences to facilitate collaborative innovation and development of industrial complexes with links to industry. While Garissa and Turkana Universities should focus on developing the livestock and leather industries. Likewise, Rift Valley universities can focus on agricultural sciences and related industries for improved food security in the country. We cannot therefore talk about food security without the leadership role of universities.

Although there are research activities that are going on, commercialisation of the same seems to elude institutions of higher learning. Yet in some cases, it does not require complex research to create wealth. For example, in the best of times, Kenya produces more milk than it can consume and as a result it goes to waste as the country imports milk products such as cheeses and yogurts. Yet, most colleges of agriculture have the technology, the people and capability to borrow the necessary capital.

Academics must intervene

In 2018, Central Bank data showed that Kenya’s food imports in the first four months of the year grew by a third to Sh68.63 billion compared to a year earlier. Kenya has relied on foreign markets for food despite having the necessary resources and capability to grow its own food. Within a decade the food imports have increased four and half times.

Several factors lead to a worsening dependence on food imports, key among them the declining productivity as a result of inconsistent rainfall patterns or overreliance on rain-fed agriculture. And also, failure to leverage data to develop predictive farming models. Farmers can only solve a small fraction of these problems. But it requires academics to intervene through research activity and their social mission.

Economic expansion benefits everyone and so everybody must play some role to ensure that the economy grows. Sometimes if not all the times, the policymakers must encourage collaborative efforts to solve issues that will impact national development aspirations. Virtually all developed nations embrace the concept of triple helix model of innovation which enables interactions between universities, industry and government, to facilitate economic and social progress.

Developing specialised universities will help re-distribute students throughout the country and achieve other unintended purposes like building connections for a better future of a nation.

Building entrepreneurial universities is not easy but in the absence of a better funding mechanism for higher education, it is worth trying. After all universities must have a social mission to contribute to society. Changing the mindset of the administrators with strict KPIs, we may birth new leadership and a method for ensuring that no one is left behind in education.