Inside lecturers’ push for higher pay

By Peter Ochieng

University lecturers are set for a handsome pay, if their proposed 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is agreed upon by all stakeholders, and approved. 

If the CBA sails through, the lowest paid graduate/research assistant will earn a basic salary of Sh86,594, while the highest-paid professor will walk home Sh580,144 richer each month.

The CBA has been carefully crafted by the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), and it is dotted with various benefits, including increased house, car, and commuter allowances.

Salary increments

The CBA, if fully adopted, will take effect on July 1, 2025, the start of the government’s new financial year.

It will spread across the years, until June 30, 2029. That means the current basic salary for a graduate/research assistant which currently stands at Sh63,647 will increase in stages, reaching Sh86,594 by the end of the CBA.

On the other hand, assistant lecturers, tutorial fellows and junior research fellows, who currently earn Sh107,872, will see their salaries increase gradually to Sh146,761.

Meanwhile, lecturers and research fellows, earning Sh121,928, will have their salaries adjusted upwards to Sh165,884, while senior lecturers and senior research fellows in Grade 13A, currently earning Sh154,739, will have their salaries increased to Sh210,524.

Associate professors who currently earn Sh193,182, will earn Sh262,824, while full professors, who now earn Sh224,631, will walk home with Sh305,610 by the final year of the CBA.

Allowances

Under the proposed CBA, professors and research professors are expected to receive a house allowance of Sh116,028, up from Sh73,715, while associate professors will get Sh104,426, up from Sh66,344, as senior lecturers receive Sh92,822, up from Sh58,972.

Lecturers and research fellows will see their house allowance increase from the current Sh55,286 to Sh87,020, while graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants, currently receiving Sh35,383, will have their house allowance adjusted to Sh55,692, a sh20, 309 increase.

On the car and commuter allowance front, full-time lecturers, graduate assistants and professors will receive a uniform allowance of Sh60,000 per month, while part-time lecturers, who currently earn Sh15,000 in commuter allowances, will get a Sh5, 000 rise to Sh20,000.

Additional allowances include a professorial allowance, book and ICT allowance, and an annual leave allowance for teaching staff.

UASU leadership is also pushing for a monthly risk allowance for lecturers exposed to hazardous work environments, specifically for staff working in medical and veterinary fields, engineering, environmental studies, agriculture, and scientific research laboratories.

With all allowances factored in, a professor will take home a cumulative salary of Sh1,096,172 per month, if the proposed CBA sails through unamended. 

As negotiations continue with relevant government bodies, lecturers will be hoping that the CBA sails through.