Lecturers’ Strike: Kenyan Universities Consider Extending Semesters by Two Weeks

Kenyan university students could spend longer in their current semesters after an end to a strike by lecturers. Public universities are exploring a variety of options to make up for four weeks of lost teaching time.

Lecturers are expected back at work on Monday, November 3, but university administrators now face the daunting task of reorganizing academic programmes without compromising examinations, graduation schedules and students’ academic progression.

Public Universities Vice-Chancellors’ Committee Chair Professor Daniel Mugendi said universities could either develop intensive teaching programs or extend their current semesters by one or two weeks depending on how far they had gone before the strike started on October 2.

The Daily Nation reported on October 31 on the proposed recovery arrangements. Lecturers’ strikes wreck programmes and long semesters and weeks of programmes, and I said universities would have to look at their academic calendar and see how to make up for the lost time.

Universities that choose to extend their semesters may need to adjust examination dates and strike wreck programmes, academic semesters, and.

The Principal Secretary for Higher Education Beatrice Inyangala has called on university managements to modify their academic calendars and schedules to recover the four weeks lost during the industrial action.

The Daily Nation says she also wants institutions to ensure that the students’ academic progress, exams and graduations continue as scheduled.

Kibabii University’s notice dated 31st October said teaching and learning for the semester One of the 2026/2027 academic years will resume on Tuesday, 3rd November, at 8am. (https://kibu.ac.ke/resumption-of-teaching-and-learning-for-the-semester-one-of-the-2026-2027-academic-year/)

It said it would speed up academic activities and bring in a new teaching schedule to ensure coverage of the semester’s content in the time available.

That announcement is a perfect example of why students should check their own individual universities’ official communication channels, rather than assume all universities will have the same reopening arrangements.

The return to work follows a Sh20 billion deal signed between the government and university staff unions on October 30 to call off the month-long industrial action.

Negotiations for 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement The semester reported by the Standard (https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/education/article/2001561060/we-have-a-deal-striking-lecturers-say).

The settlement has paved the way for the lecturers to return to work, but students will be looking to their respective university administrations for updated academic calendars, dates of examinations and graduation schedules.

The strike isn’t the immediate problem, but how universities will replace the lost teaching time without further disrupting students’ academic progress.

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