Competency, Experience and Industrial exposure of faculty Members in Public Universities and Collaborating Colleges in Kenya

he success witnessed so far with the Module II Degree Programmes in Kenya’s public universities have led to efforts to expand capacity to absorb more students into public universities. These efforts have included public universities acquiring fully owned satellite campuses in different places/towns, entering into collaboration arrangement with private middle level colleges, adopting various forms/modes of learning facilitation such as holiday, evening or weekend classes, distance, and virtual or e-learning. The Government on its part has declared several middle level colleges to be constituent colleges of different public universities and charters given to more private universities. These rapid changes in public universities often come with their own challenges and may also open up hitherto uncharted horizons or opportunities that could be exploited further. One such challenge is that of the faculty member’s qualification, experience and exposure to enable all these institutions to provide quality education. This paper examines this concern. Faculty members were sampled from public universities, and data obtained as regards their qualification, terms of employment, work expectation and experience, industrial exposure and academic self- development efforts including publications in notable journals. According to the findings made from the study, faculty members in most public universities in Kenya are often middle level ranking with the majority holding Masters Degree qualifications but little else is fully recorded on the attributes that guarantees sustainable availability of competent faculty members where demand for their services is growing by the day. Keywords: Faculty, Experience and Competence.