An Assessment of the Relationship Between Part-Time Instructors and Performance of University Graduates in Kenya’s Economy: Effects of Salary Payments

In Kenya, Universities are divided into two categories; Public and private Universities.  Finances of these Universities come from various sources such as fees received from modules one and two students, capitalization from the government, cash received from international and local organizations such as grants and monies generated by the Universities. Research has shown that despite receiving these monies from different sources, most Universities in Kenya have been submerged into financial crisis. This ranges from non payment of part time Instructors’ salaries and non payment of full time Instructors extra income for hours worked above the required time, among other factors. These facts notwithstanding, it has been observed that in Kenya’s Universities, the average ratio of part time Instructors to full time Instructors is 2:1 at a minimum. This implies that the part time Instructors input are of significance to the students’ final output and Kenya’s economy performance as well. It is expected that when part time Instructors are not rewarded for services rendered by them, the end result would translate into low quality graduates. This would not only affect the Universities standards but the graduates’ performance in the business world hence lowering the general education standard of the whole economy. The general objective of the study was an assessment of the relationship between part time Instructors and performance of Universities graduates in Kenya’s economy.

The study applied the Theory of ‘A bird in Hand’ based on the fact that money loses value and therefore Instructors are interested in their cash returns at the earliest opportunity possible. A cross sectional research design was adopted since data was collected once within a short period. Total population comprised of forty eight Part time Instructors and twelve employment organizations from all regions of Kenya. The study applied a stratified random technique to select the despondences. The null hypothesis was tested at 5% level of significance.  Findings of the study revealed a positive significant relationship between part time Instructors and performance of Universities graduates in the Kenyan economy. The study established that non payment of salaries, poor working conditions and   all contributed towards the production of half backed graduates who could not match the industry requirements.