The University of Nairobi on Friday announced that it is abolishing major colleges as it reorganises all functions around faculties.
The university council has abolished 24 colleges, reducing the number from 35 to 11 to avoid duplication and functional overreach.
In a statement on Friday, the Chair of Council, Prof. Julia Ojiambo explained that the resultant governance and structural reforms envision new thinking that breaks down bureaucracy for the benefit of the institution's stakeholders.
She said that in meeting the objectives, at a global scale, the University of Nairobi has abolished offices, merged functions and created new functional positions aligned to the core mandate of the university.
Some of the abolished positions are five offices of the Deputy Vice-Chancellors which will now be replaced by two positions of Associate Vice Chancellors.
"All positions of Principals and Deputy Principals and their roles reorganized under new positions of Executive and Associate Deans to align resources to the faculties where teaching and learning take place are abolished," she announced.
The institution has however retained 14 research institutes including KAVI, Wangari Maathai Institute (WMI), Institute of Development Studies (IDS) to continue generating knowledge for the transformation of communities.
Ojiambo further stated that the new structure is informed by the centrality of Teaching, Research and Innovations themselves functions at the core of their mandate.
"A robust ICT infrastructure alongside requisite investments, reinvestments, improvements and facility development aspirations under University Advancement are deemed critical components for delivery of teaching, research and innovation going forward.
"To keep the boat afloat, the administrative support services will be consolidated under various functions and respective professional heads all reporting to a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who directly answers to the Vice Chancellor," Ojiambo explained.
The institution said these structural interventions will result in shorter decision turnaround time and greater fiscal discipline as evident in timely decision support systems, value for money proposition, significant cost savings, greater competitive advantage and enhanced sustainability.
