Lecturers oppose PSC plan to retire professors at 70

University lecturers have opposed a proposal by Kenya’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to lower the mandatory retirement age for professors from 74 to 70 years, warning the move could worsen staff shortages and disrupt teaching and research at public universities.

The lecturers said the proposed policy would reduce the retirement age for professors to 70 years, while senior lecturers and other academic staff would retire at 64 years and below.

“This policy will trigger mass layoffs of academic staff with devastating consequences,” University Academic Staff Union Secretary General George Osanjo said.

The union argued that many university programmes already have a limited number of professors, making it difficult to replace retiring academics.

“We have programmes that actually have only two professors remaining. How would you run a programme with two professors? Now both of them will retire. Are we saying we are going to close these universities? Government must take action,” one lecturer said.

Osanjo said academic career progression takes decades, with many scholars spending years obtaining doctoral degrees and advancing through university ranks, making it difficult to replace experienced professors within a short period.

“For you to move from one grade to the next, it might even take 20 years. We call upon the Public Service Commission to go back to its books and understand how university systems work,” he said.

The lecturers urged the Ministry of Education and Parliament to intervene before the proposal is implemented, saying universities depend heavily on professors above the age of 70 to supervise postgraduate students, mentor younger academics and sustain specialised programmes.

The debate comes as the government develops a long-term Public Sector Transformation Policy aimed at reshaping Kenya’s public service workforce over the next two to three decades.

Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku has said the reforms are intended to align recruitment with demographic trends, workforce skills and succession planning rather than introduce immediate changes to the existing public service.

“The Ministry of Public Service is committed to public sector transformation reforms. These reforms are gradual and well thought out,” Ruku said at the launch of the policy initiative.

He said the strategy seeks to prepare government institutions for future workforce needs through long-term planning, including what he described as the “Gen Z-ification” of the public service.

University lecturers, however, said reforms affecting higher education should recognise the unique nature of academic career progression, warning that lowering the retirement age could weaken teaching, research and postgraduate supervision across Kenya’s public universities.