University-Level Governance in East Africa: Reform Trajectories

This chapter synthesises the higher education legal frameworks of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan to identify similarities and dissimilarities in university-level governance architecture. It presents the governance patterns on the size and composition of the tripartite shared governance organs (the University Council, the University Senate and administration); the functions of these organs; and the mode of recruiting the Chancellor, the vice chancellorship and other academic leaders. The conclusion from the chapter is that the governance patterns in these countries are quite diverse. The University Senate, the principal collegial body of the university, is the loser in all the reforms that have transpired over the years. The role of the Senate has, in most jurisdictions, been confined to making decision on pure academic questions. In terms of corporate governance, universities councils—in a bid to strengthen accountability of universities to the state and society—are either lay-only or lay-dominated in terms of membership. These governance reforms have been shaped the New Public Management global reform script and mimetic isomorphism—or policy borrowing—as well as the imperative to ensure responsiveness of universities to the rapidly changing environment in which they operate.