Reward top researchers to retain and attract talent and build research capacity in universities, says World Bank report.
Kenya’s government should reward its top researchers in order to retain and attract talent to build research capacity at the country’s universities, a World Bank report has advocated.
The document, Improving Higher Education Performance in Kenya: A Policy Report, was released on 28 August. It says the government should consider financial incentives for research performance as well as flexible schedules to reduce teaching time, with added support for mobility and international partnerships.
“These incentives … would signal a cultural shift in favour of research,” the report says.
The study found that Kenyan researchers rely on competitive grants, research chairs and centres of excellence for funding. There is no core funding for research or performance-based grants.
“Kenya is far from being at the leading edge when it comes to research funding mechanisms, as it uses only competitive research grants,” the report states.
A further problem for capacity is that only 10 per cent of those who enrol for PhDs graduate. Gender imbalance further shrinks the potential research pool.
The report states that Kenya’s current university fees structure tends to benefit the rich. The system supports fee exemptions for students who excel academically, rather than for financially needy students. The former group tends to be concentrated in rich families, according to the report.
An overhaul of the way budgets are allocated to universities is also needed, the World Bank says. The focus should be on performance, links to national interest, how well the student body and staff represent the wider population, stability, and institutional autonomy and accountability.