The University held a 2-day retreat for Senators, Coordinators, Section Heads, Heads od Departments and Union Representatives on “Disruptive thinking for growth” on the 9th- 10th January 2020 in Homabay. The retreat aimed at focusing on critical self-reflection towards making JOOUST a better place.
While Opening the Retreat, the Vice-Chancellor noted that the University had launched a 5-year Strategic Plan 2016- 2021 but the implementation was slow to come by. “Since the Launch of our 5-year Strategic Plan, we are yet to fully implement what we promised to achieve.” You have no choice but to work, we will not tolerate laxity and inaction.” Said Prof. Agong’. The Vice- Chancellor further noted that with the reforms proposed by the Ministry of Education, the University had no choice but to conform and restructure its’ operations in order to be relevant to the current demands by coming up with market driven programmes.
The Vice-Chancellor’s remarks were echoed by The Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs who reiterated the need for development of programmes that conform to current market demand. The Vice- Chancellor Planning, Administration and Finance (PAF) emphasized on the need to restructure towards making JOOUST more productive. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation and Outreach (RIO) reiterated the need for innovation and research as a vehicle for growth.
The retreat saw a number of topics discussed among them; Governance, leadership, management and critical self-reflection on our contribution towards making JOOUST a better place, JOOUST’s space in reforms and rationalization geared towards public universities, Innovations: The needs and desires of students in the current digital order, dialogue on opportunities for Schools and Departments, preparedness towards implementation of Competency Based Curriculum, Ethical Principles and Values in relation to faculty and student management, National Cohesion and Integration. MWONGOZO. Where are we as a University? Transformative Leadership. Is it worth the risks?