By Ken Austine and Valentine Wesonga
Worth Noting:
- This calls for more resources for its implementation. Furthermore, institutions of higher learning should adopt firm digital literacy courses which will highly help individuals to benefit from the digital revolution. ‘In order for learners to use variety of software and online tools, browse the internet safely and ethically, universities need to invest in state-of-the-art computer labs and other technology infrastructure,” says Dr. Marren Akong’o, a media and communication specialist at Rongo University.
- The institutions for higher learning have for a long time put great emphasis on equipping students for white-collar jobs, which is no longer sustainable as graduations have lost their glory due to scarcity of jobs.
Few decades ago, a degree certificate was a guarantee to employment.
This saw many students putting more efforts in their studies with the aim of joining universities after secondary school. Afterwards, they sought that elusive white collar job as anything less was regarded as a failure. Surprisingly, that is no longer the case.
The emergence of numerous new opportunities in skill, knowledge and education in general has necessitated a change in thought, learning and relearning for the future generation.
Thanks to the rise of popularity of Technical, Vocational Educational Training (TVETs) and Research is a principal activity of universities. Institutions of higher learning should embrace more research grant portfolios to enhance the foundation of attaining their core mandate and national development goals.
Research, innovation and entrepreneurship hold the key to bringing the gap between institutions of higher learning and the industry.
This calls for more resources for its implementation. Furthermore, institutions of higher learning should adopt firm digital literacy courses which will highly help individuals to benefit from the digital revolution. ‘In order for learners to use variety of software and online tools, browse the internet safely and ethically, universities need to invest in state-of-the-art computer labs and other technology infrastructure,” says Dr. Marren Akong’o, a media and communication specialist at Rongo University.
The institutions for higher learning have for a long time put great emphasis on equipping students for white-collar jobs, which is no longer sustainable as graduations have lost their glory due to scarcity of jobs.
Nevertheless, they have been blamed for churning out scientists who lack the ability to execute technical tasks and who are trained to understand the theoretical workings of machines.
The solution to overcome this is by equipping the students with entrepreneurial skills so that they can set up their own businesses.
Universities should at all times try their best in order to stay relevant to the society by carrying out intensive research which in turn leads to wealth creation and sustainability. In addition to that, they should create a balance between research and teaching by reducing the teaching workload to students while increasing the time for research activities which should revolve around issues affecting the societal well-being.
For instance, climate change, global warming and others.
The required transformation in universities can only be achieved when there is adequate research funding and improved infrastructure and human resource. Therefore, the government through the Ministry of Education and its stakeholders should put this into action rather than keeping on procrastinating such great policies.
The Commission of University Education should again ensure that there is free and even distribution of resources such as funds to scientists and scholars in order to facilitate the blue economy.
For our country’s digital revolution to be realized in future, universities should allocate more funds of their budgets to research as this will enhance the advancement of science, technology and innovation in various sectors of the economy hence, lots of investments in our country. Moreover, it will be of great pleasure if our universities produce graduates who resonate, connect and easily adapt with the job market.
Ken Austine and Valentine Wesonga are Communication and journalism students, Rongo University
