Discussing plans for Ikumbo: Strathmore Book Project Director Dr. Andy Sicree, Ikumbo partner Matt Gartland, Matt's mom Jeanne Gartland, SUF Director Tom Pyle

Aliki’s Journal #12.)

What’s in store? A new library at Ikumbo Secondary School to serve its 160 pupils and the local community. Now a medical student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, Matt will be spending his summer back in Kenya with Davis, working on the library’s future. “The Ikumbo library might start with 500 books and expand to up to 2000,” said Matt, “depending on the need as we will determine in our forthcoming visit.” Books are in desperately short supply, especially in Kenya’s upcountry secondary schools.

Thanks to a possible collaboration with the Strathmore University Books Acquisition Project, the first set of books for Ikumbo might come as soon as the end of this summer. During their visit Matt and Andy Sicree discussed ways in which the Ikumbo shipment can be included in the forthcoming shipment of 20,000 volumes to the Strathmore University Library. 

Initiated in 2007, the Strathmore University Books Acquisition Project has been building the collection of the new Strathmore University Library Building, constructed under a grant from the European Union. When completed next year, the project will have increased Strathmore’s collection from 18,000 to 100,000 volumes. 

A former Strathmore teacher and a confirmed bibliophile, Dr. Sicree sources books from donations, library deaccessings, and second-hard book sales, applying his keen eye and well-formed ethics sensibility to assure the highest quality books for Strathmore. After assembling and packing his acquisitions into 20 foot containers, he arranges for their shipment to Nairobi, where University Library George Gitau and his staff receive and catalogue them.

Citation by a President

Previously colleagues at the Nairobi office of the Clinton Foundation, Davis and Matt have now formed their own U.S. based tax-exempt 501c3 corporation to increase support for their project. Called Harambee For The Children, the entity hopes to raise funds for this project and, later, others like it in Kenya and the region. 

What Davis Karambi conceived six years ago in an essay on his Strathmore admissions application has now born full fruits—and garnered the accolade of an American president. In his recent commendation letter to Davis, who is still on the Clinton Foundation Nairobi staff, President Bill Clinton has written, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations on all that you have already accomplished in developing Ikumbo Secondary School, and I applaud your latest endeavors to expand upon this successful model of community-based education… In answering the call to action—one that is deeply rooted in your own experience—you bestow the precious gift of knowledge and opportunity on those who need them most, and the power of your contribution is beyond measure.”

Strathmore is the highest ranked university in Kenya, according to the January 2009 Webometrics ranking of world universities. At position 12 in Africa, Strathmore is also the highest ranked African university outside Egypt and South Africa.

South Africa’s University of Cape Town, at 359 in the world, is the highest ranked university in Africa, according to the latest ranking of universities. The top seven universities, as well as those in the ninth and eleventh positions in Africa, are South African. The American University in Cairo and Cairo University are in positions eight and ten respectively.

The University of Nairobi is the second highest ranked university in Kenya at position 22, up from 25th position in July 2008. Other Kenyan universities in Africa’s top 100 are Egerton at position 50, Jomo Kenyatta at 82, Kenyatta at 84, and Moi at 86.

Kenyan universities improved in their world rankings between July 2008 and January 2009. Strathmore rose sharply from position 4,780 to 2,404. Nairobi improved from position 4,338 to 4,046.

Of the world’s top 200 universities, 123 are North American, 61 are European, and 14 are in the Asia-Pacific region. The highest ranked university outside the US is the University of Toronto at position 25. At position 27, Cambridge University, England, is the highest ranked university outside North America. At position 44, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico is the highest ranked university in the non-English speaking world.

Ranked separately are the top 1,500 business schools in the world. In Kenya, Strathmore Business School is ranked at position 768, and the Kenya Institute of Management is at position 915.

The “Webometrics Ranking of World Universities” is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.

Isidro Aguillo, co-ordinator of the ranking, believes the size of the North American advantage points to a digital divide between regions that cannot be explained simply as a question of resources.

“We often talk about a digital divide between the rich and the poor - so American universities score higher than African universities,” he says, “but the rankings reveal a divide between the rich and the rich, and this is not a matter of resources, it is a matter of leadership in the internet.“

“In Spain, for example, online university libraries tend to be little more than databases,” says Aguillo. “In the US, they are much, much more and include things like reading lists and other things which facilitate students’ work, so they do not have to visit the library to get what they need.“

Aguillo believes that webometrics’ regional rankings, which divide the world into seven regions, can be especially useful for universities further down the tables. Comparing yourself to your regional counterparts and using that as a yardstick to better your position is a lot more useful, he believes, than taking top US universities as your reference. Students from developing countries aiming to study abroad can use the regional rankings to find study opportunities closer to home that they might not otherwise be aware of.

Higher education institutions worldwide are much more concerned about league tables and ranking systems than expected, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “There is enormous attention given to every league table that is published as well as its quality ranking. And they are taken seriously by students, government and especially by the media,” says the main author of the study, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

The study gives an insight into the impact of league tables and rankings on universities around the world, and shows how their influence is far wider than intended.

They were originally conceived as providing comparative information to key audiences such as students, public opinion and parents. But the survey of leaders and senior managers in more than 200 higher education institutions in 41 countries reveals that the tables and rankings are influencing key policy-making areas such as the classification of institutions and the allocation of funds.

“Because of this, they have a huge influence on university reputations and thus they promote competition and influence policy-making,” Prof Hazelkorn said.

During his recent trip to Cameroon and Angola, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concern about the issues that matter most to the African people, among them corruption, hunger and war. The Pope’s message wasn’t just heard in Cameroon and Angola but throughout the continent, especially in Kenya. Strathmore University’s Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr. Florence Oloo was also paying close attention to Benedict’s message, one that she says her people awaited with high expectations.

Below are excerpts from a televised interview of. Dr. Oloo by RomeReport.com. See the YouTube interview here.YouTube: Interview with Strathmore\’s Dr. Florence OlooStrathmore Deputy VC Florence Oloo

Dr. Florence Oloo, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Strathmore University

Dr. Florence Oloo, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Strathmore University (Kenya): Our whole attention was focused on him. What’s he going to tell us, how are we going to support him? I think it was much more of that unity with him. We experienced it very much in a very tangible way. Because we followed his trip to Cameroon, we followed his trip to Angola.

Oloo, deputy vice chancellor at Strathmore University in Nairobi, says the Popes message was being listened to very closely because it was one of hope for Africas future.

Dr. Oloo: He spoke to us about looking at different ways of fighting corruption, because thats one of the big things in Africa that has somehow retarded development. And its something that is a challenge for us, that we have to see, how do we fight corruption? Not only in the government, in the private sector, in universities, in secondary schools. Thats a challenge for us.

Oloo says the issues highlighted by the Pope that most plague Africa like corruption and poverty, will ultimately have to be dealt with by African countries themselves. And that aid from foreign countries can only do so much.

Dr. Oloo: Aid is important. But aid can only help us when it comes to help us with our own solutions. Aid does not help us when they give us that aid and they tell us how to use it, how to solve our problems. It doesnt help.

And then there are issues that cannot be solved with money alone, like AIDS and the situation of women in Africa.

Dr. Oloo: Yes, theres some cultural values that do look down upon the woman, but were trying to bring out the positive, the way that the woman is at the center of the family, that the woman is the one that looks after the home, the women is the one that educates the child, the woman is the one that obtains the food that she puts on the table. Im not saying men do nothing, they do something, of course, but the woman is very powerful.

While aid and assistance help, she is certain that African nations will reaffirm the idea of hope by investing in a powerful tool: education.

Dr. Oloo: I think the salvation of African countries of my country Kenya will come through education. Helping people to empower themselves. And once youre empowered you dont need someone to come tell you this is your problem, this is your solution. You have a problem, you get an innovative idea and you solve your problem.

Oloo says its through education that she hopes Africa can promote values that create more awareness about issues like AIDS, so as to foster a sense of hope for the continent.