Managinging for sustainability: The case of the department of Extra-mural studies university Of nairobi

Abstract

The concept of the extra-mural studies was introduced to Kenya in the early 1950s from Makerere University. The idea was to extend some rudimentary university education thereby expanding access to higher education to Kenyans particularly the adult literacy levels. The extra- mural method of access to university education in Kenya developed rapidly since those early days. However, due to the need to expand the mainstreamed conventional mode of study in the mid 1980s, the extra- mural activities were suspended. In the late 1990s public universities were faced by unfamiliar challenges of escalating costs and the stringent public fiscal policy and the resulting tendency to reduce funding to the higher education sector in Kenya. The public universities had develop innovative ways of raising their own revenue for sustainability. At the same time the growing public demand for university education required a change from the traditional stringent methods of the conventional ivory tower mentality to one that was more open and allowed massification of higher learning. This gave birth to the revival of the of the extra- mural activities. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the Department of Extra-Mural Studies has developed to become one of the largest departments in the University of Nairobi generation revenues for its own sustainability and to mother institution yet keeping to generally UoN - ISO 9001:2008 Certified 13 accepting level quality education and starndards. The paper focuses on the competitive strategies, the quality issues,the sustainability modeling adopted method to university education was revived and how it has expanded so rapidly analyze the sustainability strategies developed and the monitoring and evaluation methods used.