Research plays a crucial role in the advancement of knowledge and innovation in academic institutions and universities. In Kenya, the obligation of aggressive research work is essential for institutions to remain competitive and relevant in today’s global landscape. This article will explore the dynamics of aggressive research in Kenyan universities and institutions, shedding light on the challenges, opportunities, and strategies needed to drive impactful research outcomes.
According to a report published by the World Economic Forum this year, it follows that in 2023, Switzerland invested 3.15% percent of its GDP in university research, at the second-highest level of investment was Denmark with 0.72 percent, Norway ranking third, with 0.64 percent. Even though the U.S. tumbled further down the ranking, it is still ahead of Japan, New Zealand, China, and Russia.
By and large, on the grounds of this, the research work that the Varsities and other Educational Institutions undertake, are a critical part in spawning a cutting-edge based economic growth, both via the instruction of scientists and engineers. To the design of instruction and the inculcation of knowledge, research and the unearthing of knowledge, amalgamation and artistry, comprehension and engagement, amenity and overreach, if just to mention but a few, this is to the bargain of the origination and the consignment of expertise. Supposedly, teaching should tower all other obligations, at the varsities, however, for those beyond the varsity, “research” may be as a conservative estimate well advised.
Of late, Kenyan Varsities find themselves in financial budgetary difficulties, ranging from the inability of paying lecturers and other peripheral staff members. This would engender misinformation as to the manner in which these varsities fund capital, to a great degree those emanating from tuition fees, government support funds notwithstanding, and the false impression that those reserves are being rerouted from what is adjudged as the key, hence the solitary purpose -which is training. This has engendered mistrust, skepticism, and an inclination to persist in subscribing or subsidizing the public universities.
This can only but raise the question as to why universities engage in research and to what design?
There exist several crucial features to the vocation of a prominent varsity. Self-evidently, the perpetuation of knowledge (discovery, innovation, creation) is essential to any civilization. Kenya’s universities amount to a proportion of factions of elites, amenities, and mutual prowess pursuing the aforementioned activities.
Traditionally, Educational Institutions undertake scientific explorations and fact-finding as part of their core mission, as pertains to learning and discovery. This directly reflects to their paramount duty of teaching. Research could stream-in, in the guise of cardinal or practical research, research-based scholarship or academic research, prevalent in the social sciences and humanities or creative activity perverse in pure arts.
More outstandingly, the purlieu in which this tertiary-level education is provided, where students blossom in amplitude of the technical know-how in elementary and leading-edge subjects, where the adroitness for the mastery and discernment, notwithstanding the extrapolation, elucidation, and deduction are sharpened; where students are enlightened, instructed, in other respect wrought on fruitful careers. Relatively, that pedagogy and ground-work emanates from the acquaintance with the scholars who are occupied at the fore-front of their disciplines, by way of their fact-finding and research work.
Incidental Costs?
Scholars who pursue research seek financial subventions from governmental and non-governmental agencies, foundations, NGO’s and other private enterprises- to subsidize their industry and that of their students and staff, given that Varsity research could be exorbitant, especially in laboratory-intensive disciplines. Under certain circumstances, the universities are obligated to provide capital for paraphernalia, spaces, and manpower, to assist designated research undertakings. However they do so sagely, with a focus their assignment, their key initiatives, and their financial resources.
Universities with faculty of medicine have realized that the estimation to their scholastic and tuition expeditions, and by extension, to their incidental populace give grounds for the financial subsidies. Many would acquiesce to that fact that university-based medical facilities are of consequential benefit to their communities, many a times, dispensing outstanding, certified therapeutics and ministrations in modest and micro-scale communities at an echelon regularly found in sizable urban areas. It follows that Empirical, clinical and engineering research calls for unique apparatus, ultra-modern computing potentials, and equipment that calls for supervised manoeuvres and hoarding, etc. A majority of this industry is financed solely by the government and the Ministry of Health, plus other philanthropic bodies.
On the other hand, research in humanities is normally less costly, calling for reduced subsidies. Nowadays, it is customary and becoming common place for physical scientists, ecologists and sociologist to forge partnerships in seeking for substantial financial grants. This is an exhilarating and optimistic inclination for various grounds; equally significant is the dispositions of the complex issues subjected to evaluation.
For instance, funding from establishments the likes of the National Research Fund, NGOs, philanthropies, companies, startups and individuals in Kenya could subsidize outstanding bursaries and the fabrication of more knowledge by means of immeasurably low-key grants, as opposed to those needed in the natural or physical sciences. Support from independent philanthropists, family foundations, individual or amalgamated foundations may be addressed to prop-up students, faculty, laboratories or other facilities, research programs, galleries, centers, and institutes et.al
The Benefits
There exists an additional right set of circumstances in which to carry out research, apart from what the faculty can comparatively feature in the confines of the classrooms, with their research crews; and even carry out free-spirited research at their charge, time and again. This avails a conducive atmosphere, thronging with research and discovery, to the benefit of the students, and positively influences other researchers to continue forging on with the good work. Along the same lines, another benefit is the constant interaction with the leading elites in an academic field, hence the opportunity of learning and gaining insight on the cutting-edge research, in the ultra-modern laboratories, with chances to co-author, exhibit at symposiums, do networking, and prospect advanced degree avenues for students.
The Institution as a whole equally benefits from dynamic programs for research, in that research on opportune and overriding subject matters appeals to the public, which in sequence expedites considerable establishment recognition and prominence. The moment an institution embellishes the public image as pertains to its dexterity in definite areas of studies, they develop a propensity, not only in attracting students ‘en masse’, accredited faculty members notwithstanding, grants, press exposure, philanthropy et.al. Success begets success!
Another advantage is that the power vested in research assists to designate the ‘brand’ of an institution, at the ‘market-place’, both domestically and globally, exerting an influence on every single thing, from student admission, to faculty retention, to captivating capital allocation. The incidental community, locality, region, and the government bask in the fruits from the research activity of the institutions too, especially the state owned research institutions. Research equally promotes economic development, medical, commercial, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Capital bestowed into the learning institution by means of allotments and bargains bolster-up faculty, staff, and student salaries, time and again, creating extra jobs, dispensing without deviation to the taxable base.
Research Institutions, by means of their technical-know-how, distinction, and amenities, can pull new commercial activities into their vicinities or localities. They can equally initiate and procreate startup enterprises, or charter and trade their technologies to other corporations. Take Bondo University in Siaya County as an example. The locality around the remote countryside of Bondo is currently giving Siaya town a run for its money in terms of development, with the presence of a market town, owing to Bondo University. Research Institutions now and then anchors conferences, conventions and summits, which fabricate gains for local hotels, restaurants, event centers etc. Varsity medical facilities furnish outstanding health care services, in relatively small communities that under normal circumstances wouldn’t have such exceptional services.
Research-An Obligation to Learning Institutions?
Research work should be obligated to Kenyan Universities to enable them pull supplementary funds for their institutions, and render them financially viable. This would not only sharpen the skills of the researchers, as practice makes perfect, but equally allow them to accrue the previously mentioned benefits.
Research is indispensable in promoting progress towards the society, reinforcing the economy, propelling inventiveness, and in redressing the exasperating and exacting issues we encounter as humans, in our locality, and planet at large. It is by means of research, scholarship, and discovery that we discover (no pun intended) about our biography, origins and ourselves, to comprehend the current state of affairs under which we dwell, hence project for and procure our future.
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