Patrick Verkooijen, the University of Nairobi’s new chancellor, says he is on a mission to link the institution to the world best in the quest for becoming the leading university in Africa and globally competitive.
We at A Plain magazine listened to his inaugural addresses and media interviews keenly and have decided to nickname him ‘Mr Big Ideas’.
“Exploit me, exploit me as a chancellor, but be very precise. Don’t come to me with small things…. What are the big-ticket ideas which you as faculty want to move forward — and bring partners to it?” asked the Global Center on Adaptation CEO when he appeared on Citizen TV’s JK Live show with Jeff Koinange on January 31.
Prof Verkooijen, 54, says his assessment of the university reveals top talent in the faculty, workers, and students and he will become the “transmission belt to connect the assets of the university to the globe”.
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He reiterated: “My job is to bring the University of Nairobi to the world and bring the world to the University of Nairobi”.
He asked the faculty to incubate and commercialise their intellectual wealth, saying the “great ideas” ought to be brought to the market since the university should not be relying on government funding when the economy was struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
When he addressed a whole-university townhall, he asked the university to pay attention to incubation, innovation, and human resource to become number one in Africa where South African universities have been ruling the charts for a long time.
“Why is the University of Nairobi with all the talents, with all the assets, with all the connections, with all the networks, not the number one university on the continent?” he wondered on the JKL show.
Globally, university rankings look at, among others, research impact, research funding, and employability of graduates. In Kenya, the UoN has been ruling the charts, but it is facing a stiff competition from the private universities that are fast expanding thanks to tapping faculty members globally.
Prof Verkooijen, a climate impact monitor, who has been mobilising resources for projects in Africa, said he will exploit this window further to turn around Kenya’s premier university as the first foreign chancellor in Kenya.
According to the chancellor, since he was appointed to the position on January 12, his networks were already buzzing with partnership proposals and he was keen on “big and bold” ideas that he will push as “a chancellor who is connected to the global north”.
He has scheduled a trip to the US in April in the company of the vice-chancellor – Prof Stephen Kiama — and council chairman—Dr Amukowa Anangwe— to benchmark and create partnerships with some of the Ivy League universities.
Locally, he has hinted at organising a gala to meet with captains of industry whose input is necessary in the revamp of academic programmes “faculty by faculty to see if the curriculum is fit for purpose”. It is at the same meet that he seeks to have a feel of the alumni whose population is estimated at 260,000.
“It is only through higher education that a daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mine worker can run a mine, that a child of a smallholder farmer can become the President of a great nation,” he said during the UoN townhall on February 1 when he officially reported to work.
Prof Verkooijen, a Dutch, is taking over at a time Kenya’s public universities are sagging under the weight of pending bills that include the billions they owe contractors and government agencies for unremitted statutory deductions. He is taking over from Vijoo Rattansi, who was at the helm for a decade.
