Lets support universities but let them be innovative too

Public universities have faced financial challenges, some had to be closed and re-opened like my ama mater, Egerton University. Others like University of Nairobi, my other ama mater has seen the need for partnerships to develop and leverage on its land and other assets in order to shore up its revenues and reduce the over reliance on the national government financing of its programmes. Stakeholders should always strive to ensure that universities are running on the positive since they are important institutions in a country’s development trajectory. Universities are supposed to be developmental anchors through impacting skills, knowledge and personality development, hence grooming the next set of leaders and professionals for the national development. 

Universities should not always rely on the national government financing since this will keep dwindling with time. It will make such institutions to keep relying on fees paid by students as a major income generating activity, which burdens those from low-income families. This financing model has many consequences including reduction in student enrollments, in most cases where there is reduction in education subsidy. Going forward, universities should use seven major ways to generate their own incomes in order to supplement budgetary support. One, they can operationalize effective donations to fund various programmes from alumni, well-endowed individuals, foundations and charitable organizations using a variety of arrangements, including naming/bragging rights. Secondly, is the use of trusts and endowments funds to fund programmes especially from institutions whose mandates are in sync with such universities. Thirdly is the use of fundraisings to increase the resource base of a university. Fourthly, universities can engage in selling of goods and services – commercial, housing, agri-business and such ventures that can be supported by the assets including land that they own. There is a growing demand for excellent consultancy services that universities can use to grow their revenues. Fifth, from the much research that universities conduct, they should be able to patent and hence utilize the Intellectual Property (IP) rights as a source of income. Lots of revenues can be generated through applied research to address societal problems. Sixth, there is need to use the existing and new corporate alliances with other universities, companies, organizations and entities whose collaboration can lead to increased revenue streams for the universities. Universities need fully pledged and effective departments for resource mobilization.