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ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP AT THE LAUNCH OF EGERTON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY LAZARUS KUBASU NOLASCO, SENIOR SOCIAL SPECIALIST CONSULTANT, WORLD BANK/GOVERNMENT OF KENYA ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF EGERTON UNIVERSITY STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (SLDP). ON THE 13TH AUGUST 2014, NJORO. Vice Chancellor, Egerton University; University Management; University Teaching Staff; Dean of Students; Student Leadership present; Official of Student Leadership Development Program University Support Staff present Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen; Today, we officially launch the Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP). A student-focused model of youth development that place emphasis upon innovation, leadership, community building and experiential learning; graced by diverse, flexible and interdisciplinary faculties; committed to helping students develop their technical capacity to meet current challenges, professional and personal interests; supporting cohort of youth professionals to create a supportive learning environment. Of course with a curriculum that provides an understanding of ethical practices and policies of students work. This day is the fulfilment of the promise made by University leadership to initiate a program that is student run and student focussed to better the environment and circumstances at the University. Ladies and Gentlemen, I recall sometimes a decade ago while undertaking my Masters Studies in Political Philosophy, I wrote a thesis titled “Epistemological Perspective to Conflict Analysis: Bernard Lonergan Viewpoint.” After the completion of my thesis, I immediately got an assignment with a consulting firm that had won major consultancy assignment with World Bank to research and design a Transboundary Sustainable Management Framework for Lake Victoria. I was assigned to work on mitigating unending conflicts among the Kenyan and Ugandan fishermen on Lake Victoria waters. I remember the team leader of the assignment reminding me each time that my report would either lead to the approval of final report or not, so I hard to work hard and smart. I pondered how effectively I would have to approach the assignment. There was nothing substantial in terms of content I had generated during my Masters that would help me with assignment. Going back to my class notes and thesis, I couldn’t find anything that would be of assistance to undertake this assignment on sustainable management solutions. As a fresh graduate, I was ill-prepared. I contemplated resigning from the team however the desire to contribute to pacifying Lake Victoria disputes was so deep and intense in me. Taking on the task was like beginning my conflict management class again albeit this time round, it was practical and learning on the job. This scenario led me to innumerable questions: What do people expect from me as a fresh graduate? Are their expectations reasonable and practical? Do they understand the role of high education and its products to the society? To whom is the graduate responsible and

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accountable? Is it the public? The community? Or solely the employers? How about responsibility and accountability to the society at large? Or framed differently, how would one prioritize accountability to respond to the needs of the present society with being a responsible steward for past Government, Community and parental investments and commitments? Or is it the responsibilities of the Government, Community and Parents to preserve and enhance Universities to serve future generations? In the same vein, when I was graduating my mum made a statement, which I quote, “A lot is expected from you by the community, the public, the nation and we, the family”. Those words still ring in my mind and I still ask myself: have I lived as a graduate to fulfil my obligations to the community, the public, the nation and my family? As Frank Rhodes observed, “Universities are the engines of economic growth, the custodians and transmitters of cultural heritage, the mentors of each new generation of entrants into every profession, the accreditors of competency and skills, and the agents of personal understanding and societal transformation.” Are our graduates engines of economic development; custodians of cultural heritage; mentors to new generations; carriers of competencies and skills and agents of societal transformations? To those of you here, who have already graduated, do we live to this qualities as graduates? To those expecting to graduate, do we expect to live these qualities? The above qualities are needed in achieving prosperity and national development goal under Vision 2030 in a hypercompetitive economy driven by knowledge and innovation. It is this reality of the hyper-competitive, global, knowledge-driven economy of the 21st Century that is stimulating the powerful forces that will reshape the nature of our society. Today, a university or college degree has become a necessity for most careers and professions in Kenya. However, as the late Frank Newman observed “A significant gap has developed between the public purposes of higher education, the needs of society that should be met by universities, and the actual performance of these institutions. The growing power of market forces will, in the absence of skilled intervention in the functioning of the market, make a difficult situation worse.” We have a situation where market forces are rapidly overwhelming public policy and public investment in determining the future courses of higher education. It is a reality today that the market forces are dominating and reshaping the higher education enterprise that many of the most important values and traditions of the university are falling by the wayside. Ladies and Gentlemen, generally, the Kenyan public see two social function of education. One, they see education as mainly economic and vocational and concerned mainly with the transmission of technically exploitable knowledge or what we would call cognitive domain of learning. Two, they sees education as mainly political, cultural and intended to further social participation through the development of interpretive understanding. They are all right. That is why free primary education is appreciated by greater majority of Kenyans as many strive to have their children access quality primary and secondary education to the highest possible levels. Resultantly, over the last ten years there has been, in Kenya, a shift from an elite to mass access in the numbers of people seeking higher education driven by the three ideals: of getting a better job; creating a fairer society and increasing capital for the economy. This has created pressure on Kenyan universities, both private and public, to accommodate increased student numbers with greater diversity, lower entry scores, to demonstrate greater efficiency and relevance in the use of technology to develop learner support systems. Ladies and Gentlemen, with changes in demographic access and diverse market needs, the transmission model of learning has gradually begun to change to a more facilitative approach. Teaching in most universities is now learner centred - where the teacher or the lecturer becomes the ‘guide on the side’ or the facilitator. From an ‘instructional’ to a ‘learning’ paradigm as we witness the changing the role of higher education from a ‘place of instruction’ to a place to ‘facilitate learning’. This indeed has fostered the seed of creativity among many

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students at the universities and colleges. It has released the capacity of questioning among students and fostered steps towards innovation. Ladies and Gentlemen, however, as it is requisite in any learning institutions, students must integrate the insights and perspectives of the disciplines in order to foster their growing understanding of the world. They must apply that growing understanding to a series of issues, of increasing complexity and importance, some of which, at least, are posed by the challenges of daily life in the communities around them as well as the challenges they experience at the frontiers of their respective disciplines where knowledge is being generated right in front of them. If the moral purpose of education is to make a positive difference to students’ lives, the purpose of higher education is to help students develop their potential as fully as possible enabling students to be as creative and innovative. Creativity lies at the heart of a student’s own identity; involving the manifestation of new ideas, concepts, processes, artefacts or understanding important to individuals, communities and our society as a whole. As Sternberg argues, we need three different sorts of abilities to be successful in life:

Analytical abilities – to analyse, evaluate, judge, compare and contrast; Practical abilities – to apply, utilise, implement and activate; And creative abilities – to imagine, explore, synthesise, connect, discover, invent and adapt.

To these families of abilities, I would add, abilities to reflect to learn from and make sense of experiences. The world needs people who can combine their knowledge, skills and capabilities in creative and adventurous ways to find and solve complex problems. Creativity is important to our inventiveness, adaptability and productivity as an individual, and to the prosperity and functioning of our organizations and more generally to the health and prosperity of our society and economy. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is argued that the problem with higher education in Kenya is that it pays far too little attention to students’ creative development. Creativity as an outcome of higher education, at least in the Kenya, is more by accident than design. Universities have little space and funding to facilitate creative ideas from students; so does the Government. But the problem is not chronic, because most institutions would recognise this as something that need fixing. A good place to work out these connections and to design the continuum of experiences that can draw our students towards greater sophistication, purpose and capability is the University. Higher education in Kenya occupies a privileged position in providing educational opportunities that engage people in complex learning and problem working – ideal conditions for the development of creative human potential. Yet all too often we squander the opportunity to help student’s develop their creative talents, preferring conformance and compliance to more radical and less predictive responses and penalising mistakes rather than seeing ‘mistakes’ as important lessons for learning. Higher education needs to see creativity within the important role it plays in preparing students for an uncertain and ever more complex world; a world that requires people to utilise their creative as well as their analytical capacities. We should seize the opportunity for leading higher education into the sort of world we want. This why, I do believe, Egerton University, has designed a Student Leadership Development Program. Underlying SLDP is a concern for the development of students’ potential in a more holistic sense than most higher education experiences elsewhere currently provide. Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP) is that creative learning space. SLDP is influenced by the changing needs of the 21st century learner with new approaches to the facilitation of learning, conceptualised widely as comprising ‘physical space’, a ‘virtual space,’ ‘personal psychological space’ and even a ‘biological space’. This program will provide opportunity for personal innovation – something that is new to individuals - the transfer and

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adaptation of ideas from one context to another. It will enable working at and across the boundaries of acceptability. It will also involve exploration of new territory and of taking of risks. It will promote the holistic idea of ‘graduate-ness,’ that is, the capacity to connect and do things with what has been learnt and to utilize the knowledge to learn in other situations. It will make sense out of complexity that is, working with multiple, often conflicting factors, pressures, interests and constraints. Through a combination of the physical space and facilities provided by the University, it will become a catalyst for change and innovation at the University. Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe SLDP program will generate new ideas: thinking out of the box; looking far and beyond the obvious; seeing the world in a different way so that it can be explored and understood better; inventing and producing new things and doing things no one has done before; amalgamating someone else’s ideas – by recreating, reconstructing, re-contextualizing, redefining and re-adapting things that have been done before but differently. This will be done through exploration and experimentation. The program will work in an uncertain world and move from the known to unknown. It will enable students be resourceful – use their knowledge, capability, relationships, powers to unleash their hidden creative potential to overcome challenges or problems in the University and to exploit opportunities as they arise. It will also offer them a platform to combine, connect, synthesise complex and incomplete data/situations/ideas/ contexts in order to see the world freshly/differently and to be able to understand it better. Ladies and Gentlemen, in 2006, IBM Corporation brought together 248 thought leaders from nearly three dozen countries and regions representing 178 organizations on four continents and asked them to explore the evolving nature of innovation and creativity. The first conversation, conducted in 2004, concluded that innovation is increasingly global, multidisciplinary, and collaborative and open. Global – because, new ideas are driven by interactions made possible by networked technology and open standards that are removing geographic barriers. Multidisciplinary or Transdisplinary, because, based on the observation that the challenges and opportunities we now experience are now complex and requires a diverse mix of talent and expertise; Collaborative and Open, because, innovation results from people working together in new and integrated ways, bringing networks of people and organizations together, shaped by common interests. In these environments, IBM concluded, we will need new definitions of such classic concepts as enterprise, intellectual property, risk and benefit, trust and responsibility and brand. Coincidentally, SLDP is modelled on the same principles of global interconnectedness; multi-disciplinary approach; teamwork and collaboration. To extrapolate the above, Mombasa is water scarce county and through the support of World Bank, Israel, Japan, Dutch Governments and Government of Kenya, we have been working for the last four years, to address water scarcity in Mombasa City. Many feasibility studies have been conducted and explored the possibilities of using sea water and many of nearby available water resources. Currently, Mombasa receives its water from Kilifi, 240Kms away that only meet 40% of its current water demand with significant losses witnessed on transmission line. The conclusion has been that we design a dam at Mwache in Kwale County reducing the transmission by whooping 200kms. In the design of the dam at Mwache in Kwale to serve Mombasa, I recall, the multidisciplinary team of experts needed, close to 50 professions before the project can be presented to the World Bank Board for funding approval. Just to mention a few on the team: Water Engineers, Hydrologist; Geologist; Dam Safety structural engineers; Economists; Legal experts; GIS specialist; Environmentalist; Social specialist among many others. It is not only the work of Water Engineers to solve the water scarcity problem in Mombasa but a multidisciplinary team that is needed. Ladies and Gentlemen, to foster a society in which learning such SLDP has consequences to the society, the University must direct itself to bringing public purposes and private benefits together. Public good and private benefit must not remain competing alternatives. Individual

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aspirations and personal goals can be most productively advanced when research and education are inspired by both a thirst for knowledge and a desire for practical outcomes. In my opinion, I do believe that we are indeed approaching this frame through SLDP where the expectations of policymakers and community members create conditions that advance the value and practicality of pursuing engaged education and innovativeness. I believe from this platform, leaders will emerge in all ages, sizes, shapes, and from both genders. However, it is certain that a leader will only get out what the leader puts into the situation and relationships. The SLDP program will hone students’ skills and encourage them to identify service opportunities to other university students and society at large. According to Maxwell, “The one who influences others to follow only is a leader with certain limitations. The one who influences others to lead others is a leader without limitations”. An effective leader can also be identified by how well the followers perform. The superior leader is one who recognizes the responsibility of empowering others to lead whereas leadership is a shared experience. Therefore leaders need to be preparing the next generation of leaders. Out of the program, the University is creating the next generation of Kenyan leaders. Ladies and Gentlemen, in the same vein, I believe Student Leadership Development program will foster leadership, in a unique way as a service in the university. And this service will come with a sacrifice. The sacrifices of one person willing to make for the good of others will take many forms. The giving of one's time and energy will certainly be a sacrifice. Unlike money, time and energy are nonredeemable. Once we spend it, there is no getting it back. The willingness to sacrifice one's own interests or comfort, so that others may advance or be protected, is another example of leadership. Like a parent who feeds their child before themselves, the willingness to put the interests of others first is a sure sign of leadership. But perhaps the single most powerful sacrifice, the one sacrifice that is core to all great leaders, is the willingness to sacrifice their authority just as the University and Lecturers are doing today through SLDP. It is a leader's ability to transfer their authority to others that actually gives them their power. In a command and control structure, authority is sometimes hoarded at the top. This may be good for the short term and it may be good for the few people in key positions, but ultimately the institution will suffer in time to come. That why SLDP is good. Because it sacrifices ‘authority’ to student to foster innovation, new knowledge, creativity and excellence, empowering students to take responsibility to advance the University's interests Interesting also about Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP) is how it will work through student groups and teams or teamwork approach or what Simon Sinek in his book ‘Leaders Eat Last’ calls Circle of Safety. Sinek points out that the principle cause of failure among institutions is the tendency to focus more on numbers and short-term results than we do on people. When numbers are prioritized over people, the result is an organization where people simply don't feel safe inside the organization. If people don't feel safe inside the organization, they can't possibly work together to face all of the never-ending challenges that come from outside of the institution. However, when people feel safe inside the organization -- when there is a strong Circle of Safety -- people work together in amazing ways to create long-term success. Perhaps the simplest and most easily-actionable idea is to take the initiative to care more for the people on our team. By simply making the effort to help the people on our team more often, and show them that we truly care about them, we can start the process of creating an entire team or organization of people who trust each other. This not only makes the team or organization significantly more effective, it also transforms work from something we may dread into something we wake up excited about. We must all start today to do little things for the good of others one day at a time. Lastly, Ladies and Gentlemen, perhaps as I conclude I would like to pose a question. “What makes Egerton University uniquely a University of choice in the marketplace of many other universities in Kenya? What is so special about Egerton?” Two, with Student Leadership

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Development Program at Egerton, can something characteristically unique about the University grow? Sinek in the same book, Leaders Eat Last, argues that very few people or institutions can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. By WHY, I mean the purpose, cause or belief – perhaps I would ask, WHY does your institution exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning to go to class? And WHY should anyone care anyway? According to Sinek, people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. We are drawn to leaders and institutions that are good at communicating what they believe. What does Egerton believe and do we still believe in what we are expected to believe in. That vision will make us feel like we belong here; feel special; feel safe and not alone. As long as people identify with a vision, people will overcome any challenge that outsizes their resources. They will give everything they've got to solve the problem. Though it may take small steps to make a big leap, it is the vision of the big leap, and not the action of the small steps that inspires people. And only after we have committed ourselves to that vision can we look back at our lives and say to ourselves that the work we did mattered. Our vision as University must be resoundingly strong and valued by everyone who identifies with the institution. We must start with the WHY and become great by keeping the WHY clear year after year. Those who forget WHY they were founded show up to the race every day to outdo someone else instead of outdoing themselves. The way something is communicated must be believed in, explained, and people accept it for themselves, because THEY believe in it. Finding the WHY is not the hard part - it’s sticking to your WHY that’s difficult. Hope the Student Leadership Development Program at Egerton University will stick to its WHY, make Egerton uniquely a university of choice and take this institution to greater heights and excellence. With these many remarks, and with humility, I wish to declare the Student Leadership Development Program officially launched. LAZARUS KUBASU NOLASCO 13th August 2014.