With the harmonised guidelines on academic staff promotion announced by the Commission for University Education (CUE) in 2014, it is no longer strange for a master’s degree holder to be appointed as lecturer grade 12 and not assistant lecturer or tutorial fellow (G11).
While this was seen as a good move against unfair practices in the promotion of academic staff, they were also met with a fair amount of criticism.
First, the guidelines placed hard lines for promotion, considering the number of postgraduate students that academic staff have supervised to completion.
Some lecturers found disappointment especially in disciplines that do not attract many postgraduate students — such as medicine, law and life sciences.
Some colleagues, who are senior lecturers and have graduated several master’s students, cannot apply for promotion since there was no PhD among them. Most of them retire as senior lecturers.
The guidelines were suspended by the High Court, but it is necessary to understand them and their implications.
To become a tutorial fellow G11, one must have graduated with a master’s degree and enrolled in a PhD programme. For lecturer G12 appointment, one must have a PhD.
To become a senior lecturer G13, one must have a PhD, published at least two papers with an equation of 24 points, three years teaching experience since the last appointment as a lecturer or six years industry experience and supervised at least three doctorate students to completion.
An associate professor G14 must have taught for three years as a senior lecturer, supervised three postgraduate students with one a PhD holder, attracted research funding and published at least four papers in a peer-reviewed journal.
A full professor must have graduated three postgraduate students, one being a PhD holder, taught as an associate lecturer for at least three years and attracted research funding.
Comparatively, it is unfair that an administrative staff can rise to G14 with a master’s! These guidelines have had some serious implications.
First is control over students’ supervision. While academic staff understand the requirement for promotion, there is some extent that they have no control on the students, especially their motivation to progress with their thesis.
But the guidelines can lead to poor quality of postgraduate theses because of the urge to ‘graduate a postgraduate student’.
Second is the issue of quality research publications. Notably, a good quality paper takes some time to get published due to the rigorous process involved in publishing in high-end journals like Nature.
A minimum of one year review period should be expected in high-index journals. This has led to the growing number of predatory journals that promise to process an article within a few days at a fee.
The guidelines fall short of other aspects that academic staff contribute to their respective faculties. A broad approach to these guidelines is needed to give fair promotion criteria for academic staff.
Njoroge, a lecturer at Murang’a University of Technology, holds a PhD in Tourism and Climate Change. [email protected] @DrJoejoself
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