TY - JOUR
T1 - Privatising the public
T2 - Marketisation as a strategy in public university transformation
AU - Munene, Ishmael I.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - In this study, the transformation of a Kenyan public university through marketisation and privatisation was investigated qualitatively. By focusing on senior university administrators, deans, department heads, union leaders, student leaders and senior scholars at Kenyatta University the study identified the reasons for, and strategies used to achieve, marketisation and the consequences. External factors - pressure by multilateral financial institutions and global trends in favour of the market place and private finance in higher education - and internal factors, including social demand for higher education alongside the government's budget rationalisation agenda, were the impetus for the transformation. Strategies used in marketisation included the corporatisation of university management through the de-politicisation of the university chancellorship, competitive recruitment of the vice-chancellor, administrative reconfigurations involving mergers and downsizing, registration of unions and revitalisation of student leadership and commercialisation of learning. These developments resulted in role conflicts over various offices, insider recruitment, administrative misalignment, loss of faculty power in governance, collective bargaining failure and disruption of learning and institutional instability.
AB - In this study, the transformation of a Kenyan public university through marketisation and privatisation was investigated qualitatively. By focusing on senior university administrators, deans, department heads, union leaders, student leaders and senior scholars at Kenyatta University the study identified the reasons for, and strategies used to achieve, marketisation and the consequences. External factors - pressure by multilateral financial institutions and global trends in favour of the market place and private finance in higher education - and internal factors, including social demand for higher education alongside the government's budget rationalisation agenda, were the impetus for the transformation. Strategies used in marketisation included the corporatisation of university management through the de-politicisation of the university chancellorship, competitive recruitment of the vice-chancellor, administrative reconfigurations involving mergers and downsizing, registration of unions and revitalisation of student leadership and commercialisation of learning. These developments resulted in role conflicts over various offices, insider recruitment, administrative misalignment, loss of faculty power in governance, collective bargaining failure and disruption of learning and institutional instability.
KW - Globalisation
KW - Higher education
KW - Kenya
KW - Marketisation
KW - Privatisation
KW - Transformation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=39449129639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=39449129639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13596740801903448
DO - 10.1080/13596740801903448
M3 - Article
SN - 1359-6748
VL - 13
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - Research in Post-Compulsory Education
JF - Research in Post-Compulsory Education
IS - 1
ER -