University of Embu Vice-Chancellor Prof Daniel Mugendi has linked robust team work to the stellar performance of the university following the ranking of the university as the best performing state corporation in the 2021/22 financial year performance contracting evaluation.
The VC said that the institution which started as Embu Agricultural Training College, a constituent college of the University of Nairobi has always employed the aspect of a hearty team work where targets are cascaded from the institutions’ junior employees to the highest management of the university.
Mugendi noted that not only does the institution cascade the duties from the junior employees to the highest management of the university but it also ensures that it employs strict coordination and monitoring to ensure that every employee meets their targets for the university to attain its targets as a corporate.
“We are a very inclusive family whereby the VC is not seated on an ivory tower somewhere where he cannot be reached but we integrate and work as a team which has really helped us,” noted the VC.
Speaking during a press briefing on Thursday at the university, the VC noted that despite the institution which received its charter in 2016 having been ranked the best state corporation, the institution has its own challenges but it always bench-marked from other best performing institutions in order to borrow what they are doing right and also to avoid what they are doing wrong.
He said that bench-marking from some of the best performing institutions in Kenya and internationally, has helped to shape the university to avoid some of the management mistakes that the institution might have gotten into.
The institution which is located 2 kilometers from Embu town’s central business district and next to Izaak Walton hotel along Embu-Meru highway was also ranked the best performing state corporation in 2019/20 financial year performance contracting evaluation and second runners up in 2020/21 financial year performance contracting evaluation.
Mugendi said that the university has plans to ensure that it stays at the top as the best performing state corporation by enforcing thorough supervision, monitoring and helping those who don’t meet their targets to meet them.
The VC noted that various state universities are battling financial challenges and called on the Government to inject more funds to universities so that they can operate optimally.
He noted that public universities have been getting the same capitation year in year out for the last 6 years.
Mugendi also called on the Government to review the Sh 16,000 tuition fee that was set in 1989 to at least go up slightly so that it can support operations of universities.
Mugendi disclosed that the biggest challenge that is facing universities is the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) saying that when it’s negotiated, the Government only gives the arrears and does not fund the CBAs going forward.
He cited the 2017/21 CBA saying that the Government determined that it needed Sh8.8 Billion which was paid and the universities used the money to pay its members’ arrears adding that from 2021 going forward, the government never factored that budget in the universities budget.
He said that universities have been receiving the same amount of money that they have been receiving since 2017/18 which he pointed out to be the biggest challenge affecting the operations of public universities.
He said the huge funding gap that is being experienced in the public universities can only be addressed by the government increasing the funding of public universities.
“The Government is supposed to fund the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) to a tune of 80 per cent but this year currently its only funding to only 48 per cent which means there is a huge funding gap in universities that the Government is not able to give to universities; no wonder the universities are currently in a crisis,” noted the VC.
The Vice-Chancellor said that there is a need to place all students who scored C+ and above in public universities as a way of strengthening the institutions so that the money coming from the Government can go to sponsor those students placed in public universities as compared to private universities.
He added that the 173,000 students whose Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E) results were released in January 2023 and scored C+ and above, ought to be placed in public universities because the institutions have a capacity slightly over 200,000 meaning they can accommodate the students.
He said that the Government placing all the C+ and above students in public universities will help to alleviate the suffering that public universities are going through.
He also called on the Government to increase funding to the HELB loan body so as to give an opportunity to the needy students who desire to go through university education.
He added that a number of students from the University of Embu have been waiting for HELB loan disbursement for a long time but it has not been forthcoming.
Mugendi said the institution has signed partnerships with several institutions who are both state and non-state partners which helped a lot in the ranking of the university as the best state performing corporation.
University of Embu Director Performance Contracting and ISO Implementation Kirema Nganata said the university was ranked the best performing state corporation after garnering a score of 1.7272.
He said the university was rated the best among all public universities in the implementation of the universities co-mandate in training, research and extension work or community service.
The Director added that the university performed very well in financial stewardship in terms of payment of pending bills, generation of university incomes and payment of staff.
He added the university was rated highly among all universities in Kenya in service delivery, Commission for Administrative Justice (CAJ).
He further added that the school also scored highly in cross cutting issues with targets such as sensitization of students on HIV/AIDS, drugs and substance abuse, gender mainstreaming, corruption eradication, disability mainstreaming and national cohesion which the school has fully been engaging its students on.
Nganata said the school also scored highly on procurement on the target of AGPO that the school has been issuing procurement opportunities to the youths and women freely and fairly.
He noted that the university also was rated highly in buying locally made products on procurement target adding that the university procures 60 per cent locally made products.
Nganata also pointed out that the university performed well in the implementation of presidential orders such as the contribution of 10 per cent tree cover that the university planted thousands of trees.
Nganata called on various parents to enroll their students into the university’s recently launched TVET courses.
By Justus Anzaya
