Surviving Austerity: Kenya’s Public Universities and the Competition for Financial Resources

Abstract

Several aspects and trends characterize the global context of higher education. These include, among others, an increase in the number and types of higher education providers and consumers, marketization and privatization, a worsening global economy, and declining state financial support. Declining state financial support is perhaps the most critical aspect of the present constitutive environment of public universities, mainly because it constitutes a threat to these institutions’ commitment to their core missions. Declining state financial support for public universities therefore calls for both strategic and adaptive responses by institutions to guarantee their well being in a competitive environment.