A Survey of Benchmarking Practices in Higher Education in Kenya: The Case of Public Universities

Abstract

Benchmarking has been used as a tool, a methodology and a technique for continuous improvements in sectoral operations to gain and maintain competitive advantage. This was a survey of benchmarking practices in higher education in Kenya, the case of public universities, whose objectives were; to document the benchmarking activities in the public universities; to establish the challenges facing the public universities in benchmarking. Cross sectional survey was used in this study to collect data from the six public universities with their respective campuses/schools in the population of interest. The respondents were senior administrators and the academic staff. Of the 53 informants who were sampled, 31 responded, thus, a response rate was of 58 percent.Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and summarize the data before presenting it in the form of proportions, means, tables and graphs. This was in line with the first and second objectives, which were actually answered in relation to the benchmarking practices in the academic function of public universities in Kenya. The study found out that continuous improvement systems in Kenyan public universities are good, not excellent. The external drivers of change/continuous improvements in public universities are the customers/students as opposed to legislation, while the major internal trigger of change is the actual performance. The public universities effectively and successfully benchmark for continuous improvement. The Kenyan public universities use action research and performance indicators as the sources of referencing information on benchmarks. The most common type of benchmarking in use is development/improvement benchmarking and planning to make use of international benchmarking. Finally, the three critical factors that have influenced the success of benchmarking practices are: time and resource availability: limited duration, comparability and compatibility, which are reasons why the institutions don't practice international benchmarking.

A Survey of Performance Improvement through Benchmarking in Commercial Banks in Kenya: The Managers’ Perception and Experience

“…A Survey of benchmarking practices in higher education in Kenya: the case of public universities by Magutu et al (2011) found out that participating in benchmarking would Kenya: The Managers' Perception and Experience give Kenyan public universities a better understanding of practice, process, or performance and insights of the academic operations and functions. The three most critical factors facing the benchmarking processes in Kenya were found to be: time and resource availability; limited duration; comparability and compatibility which happened to be the probable reason why the institutions don't practice international benchmarking.…”

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“…Sources of benchmarking ideas can be obtained from data centers, libraries or through direct search [4]. [5] concluded that the three critical factors that have influenced the success of public universities' benchmarking practices in their environs are time and resource availability: limited duration, comparability and compatibility, which is the reason why companies do not practice international benchmarking. [6] and [5] also recommended a study towards determining the extent to which other companies and institutions outside the higher education sector have used benchmarking as a tool for continuous improvement.…”

Against Narration Sickness in Higher Education: Implications of Paulo Freire’s Banking Concept of Education on Achievement of University Education Objectives in Kenya in the light of the Universities Act 2012

“…Sifuna (1998) noted that Kenya has attached education to economic and social development since 1963. This led to the rapid expansion of the education system to provide qualified persons for the growing economic and administrative institutions and to undertake some reforms to reflect the aspirations of an independent state Magutu et al (2011), discuss that over the last four decades, the social demands with respect to higher education in Kenya have clearly intensified. This has been exemplified by the rise in enrolment in public and private universities, the proliferation of more private universities and the establishment of the private wings (self sponsored programmes) in the public universities (Government of Kenya, 2005).…”