7 th Annual Forum of Heads Members Institutions 2015 Sustainability Models for Higher Education and Research Institutions By Prof. Meoli Kashorda, PhD, MIET, MIEEE Executive Director, Kenya Education Network (KENET)
What is Our Agenda Introductions KENET secretariat, Trustees, Management Board, Heads of Institutions of Member Institutions, Representatives, Invited Participants Motivation for 7 th Annual Forum Theme? Forum Theme and 2-day Program What Does it mean that KENET is the National Research and Education Network (NREN) of Kenya? KENET Objects Vision, Mission, Core Values What were the BIG stones of 2015? 1 Gb/s Last Mile Broadband Connections to Main Campuses Increased Uptake of Broadband Cloud (Shared) Services (GoK, Institutions) Special Interest Groups and associated Baseline Surveys (Higher Education Data)
Forum Presentations and Photos in the Cloud! Key assumption all of us have an electronic device with WiFi Laptops, tablets, smartphones All presentations shall be available electronically (and will be posted in 2015 HoI Website KENET Broadband Connection 100 Mb/s To support - KENET WiFi, eduroam, Video Conferencing and Web Conferencing
Introductions Heads of Institutions Attending Forum for the first time Other Heads of Institutions (Vice Chancellors or CEOs) Public Universities, Private Universities, Research Institutes, Government Institutions, Tertiary Colleges, Affiliate members Invited Participants - Deans of engineering, University librarians, Finance Officers, Directors of Large campuses KENET Trustees present Management Board Members present KENET staff present List of Participants, Institutions, and official e-mail address shall be posted on HoI Website
Sustainability Models for Higher Education and Research Institutions
Motivation for the Theme Observations and informal discussions with member institutions and faculty Many of you in financial distress almost desperate Expansion of the TVETs and Universities stretching government Little money for teaching or research How are we funding research universities and research institutions in Kenya? Universities Act 2012 and STI Act 2013 funding institutions being constituted! University Funding Board and National Research Fund about to become operational Trustees of NRF appointed and board inaugurated 2% of GDP fund! University Funding Board Trustees selection process in final stages active in next budget cycle Baseline Surveys of Engineering and ICT departments and Medical Schools revealed serious funding constraints Inadequate labs, little research or graduate education funding, teaching budgets low, limited infrastructure funding Universities and Higher Education Institutions in other parts of world also looking for new business models! In the US government asking why higher education costs are so high; and student debt unsustainable In South Africa, University riots in October and November 2015
2-day Program December 10, 2015 Introductions, Forum Theme /Program and State of KENET 2015 Keynote speakers Fixing institutional financial systems (taking good care of what you have) Prof. Kinandu Muragu, a professor of finance and an experienced CPA Does Kenya and Africa need research universities? Dr. Nico Cloate, Director CHET Sources of Research Funding and Attracting and Retaining Quality Faculty Prof. Boga, TTUC and Prof Rajab, Pwani Breakout Discussion Groups and Plenary Sessions all afternoon Cocktail at 6.30 PM December 11 Innovations in green energy for institutions and teaching lab-based courses and baseline surveys of engineering departments saving operational costs a Prof DaSilva, SU and Prof. Absaloms, UoN, Meoli Kashorda/Tim Waema, KENET Institutional readiness for large PPP project management Keynote speaker, Prof Mugenda, VC, KU Is the Cloud Real for Higher education and research institutions? Ian Moore, CGIAR Breakout Groups and Plenary KENET awards Vote of Thanks + Holiday!
KENET Trust Objects and Membership Categories
KENET Trust Objects are to: 1. provide a sustainable and high-speed Internet connectivity to educational institutions; 2. facilitate electronic communication among beneficiaries in educational institutions; 3. support sharing of teaching and learning resources among educational institutions; 4. support teaching and learning over the Internet for beneficiaries in educational institutions both in Kenya and outside; 5. Support collaboration in developing locally relevant learning materials in educational institutions; and 6. Facilitate collaborate in research in educational institutions.
KENET Membership categories Full Members Universities, University colleges, colleges, and other government organization in education sector Affiliate members School Associations, World Bank, KUCCPS, ICT Authority KENET serves only members it is therefore NOT a business (KRA waives VAT on all services)
104 Members full members (As of 10/12/2015)
KENET as part of Higher Education and research Eco-System
Vision, Mission and Values of KENET Vision To be a leading research and education network driving quality of higher education and research through ICT Mission To be a key catalyst and driver of the integration of ICT in teaching, learning and research through quality, cost-competitive and efficient ICT services and to be a key partner in the development of the Kenyan ICT society
Core Values Partnerships and collaborations. We shall nurture partnerships and collaboration of value to our members. Open access. We shall be guided by the principles of open access in the products and services we provide or promote. Diversity. We shall promote gender, ethnic and university diversity in the recruitment of employees, capacity development and governance. Sustainability and competitiveness. We shall endeavor to be sustainable and competitive in the products and services we offer. Integrity and ethics. We shall embrace professionalism in our work and relationships and foster transparent and participatory decision-making, accountability for decisions and ethical behavior. Customer delight. We shall at all times strive to delight our customers. Innovation. We shall promote member collaboration and provide value-adding services driven by continuous innovation on technology and partnership.
Last Year of KENET Strategic Plan 2011-2016! Current Developed in January June 2011 and reviewed by IBM Consultants in July 2011 Mid-Term Strategic Plan Review was in March 2014 (Stakeholder Forum) Development of Strategic Plan 2016 2022 January April 2016 Involve heads of member institutions, faculty, researchers, staff, Stakeholder forums in January April 2016 Face-to-face and Web-conferencing platform will be used HoI proceedings and discussions shall be used as background information Launch of Strategic Plan in June 2016 How do you want us to serve you in the next 5 years?
What is the Value of KENET to Member institutions? Aggregates demand for bandwidth and leased lines Increasing buyers power of the higher education sector KENET is a platinum customer to ALL major suppliers of leased lines Liquid Telecom, Jamii, Safaricom, TKL, Access Kenya, Wananchi KENET beneficiary of supplier-financed IRUs High availability connections (over 99% compared to about 98% by any one commercial operator) Aggregates commodity and R & E Internet traffic KENET institutions generate up over 4,000 Mb/s of Google traffic (almost 50% of KENET traffic) R & E traffic to GEANT in Europe and Internet2 in the US. Low congestion international circuits (4.5 Gb/s) Aggregates high-end ICT talent technical + project management Provide advisory services; A vehicle for Capacity building for ICT staff and senior leadership in HE Forums and training programs Is one of the voices of the research and education community in Kenya / Africa Vehicle for GoK / World Bank broadband funding for universities Attracts donor funding for higher education PHEA, USAID, NSRC, NSF, EU, ISOC etc Twinning agreements with DFN (German NREN) ICT in education advocacy
15 9 KENET National Broadband Network Coverage 2015 KDN fiber-underground (Primary) Jamii fiber -overhead(backup). Lokichoggio Lodwar Ethiopia Moyale Mander a POP KENET POP Number of Campuses Connected Nairobi POP 72 Kitale Marsabit Project Marsabi t Wajiir Kisumu POP 16 Uganda Kisumu POP Weybuye Rong o Eldoret POP Kakameg a 350KM Kisumu 400KM Kisii Isebania Eldoret Kericho Bomet 400KM Nyahururu Nakuru POP Nakuru 150KM Narok UoN POP Nanyuki Nyeri Nairobi Kaljiado Meru POP Isielo Emb u Muranga 350KM Thika USIU DC Tal a Meru Mwingi Kitui Gariss a Somalia Mombasa POP 12 Eldoret POP 14 Nakuru POP 11 Meru POP 11 Tanzania 500KM Namanga 500KM Mombasa POP Mombasa Garsen Italian Space Agency -Luigi Broglio Space Centre- Malindi Malindi INDIAN OCEAN Kilifi KEMRI Wellcome, Kilifi Total Campuses connected 185+ NOFBI Distance- 724KM KENET Owned Last Mile Fiber 188KM KENET Core Ring Fiber Network 110KM Access Fiber Spurs 30KM Total KENET Owned fiber 1052KM Google Confidential and Proprietary
KENET as the NREN of KE Provides Affordable Internet Services to Member Institutions and Aggregates Internet traffic from Higher Education and institutions KENET was distributing about 9 Gb/s of traffic as of November 2015 Provides community cloud services web hosting, data backup, disaster recovery and Virtual Servers / Storage Operates two tier 3 data centers with uptime > 99.99% Over 166 TB storage capacity, upgradable to 1 PB Develops High-end ICT talent technical + project management + Data analysis Capacity building for KENET and member institutions Builds advanced research infrastructures and community in different areas Africa Science Gateway and federated services (KENET CA, idp, EDUROAM) Special Interest Groups in STEM areas It is an Academic Community? HoI forums, mailing lists, people networks Internet Measurement Lab 18
KENET as the NREN of KE (cont) Catalyst for transformation of education and research using ICT Offers up to 10 travel grants to faculty researchers or post-graduate students in STEM areas Sponsors innovative research using Mini-grants of $10,000 per faculty team (see http://raspberry.kenet.or.ke ) Organizes forums of faculty in different areas (e.g., engineering faculty forum in 2015 Regularly Conducts E-readiness Survey of Connected Universities 2006, 2008, 2013 and 2015 (see http://ereadiness.kenet.or.ke Data-driven advocacy and influencing ICT strategies to increase use of ICT in education and research Conducts Baseline Survey of Selected STEM departments Baseline surveys of engineering, computer science and medical schools conducted in 2015 Data will be used to prepare baseline survey reports and policy technical Builds advanced research infrastructures and community in different areas Collects Annual Data on Enrollment of Connected Higher Education Institutions 2015 data collected for 57 universities / university colleges connected to KENET New Initiative to start measuring research collaboration and productivity of Kenyan universities and research institutes Will be research analytics tools like Elsevier SciVal or Thomson Reuters InCites will be used in 2016 to prepare research advocacy reports Internet Measurement Lab 19
Special Interest Groups in STEM areas The Five Special Interest Groups to be created! Educational Technology Convener - Dr. Alice Njuguna Driving Schools Connectivity Initiative Organizing e-learning faculty development workshop in July August 2016 Engineering Education and Research Prof. Absaloms Ouma, convener Raspberry PI as a student-owned lab for engineering students Baseline survey of engineering department and policy brief SIG in computer Science and Information systems February 2016 SIG Medical education and research April 2016 Agricultural research - TBD Relatively low PhD throughput in all of the above areas and low % of faculty with PhDs in all except agriculture.
What is unique about Broadband Services offered by KENET? High availability - > 99% and many at 100% About 20 institutions on access fiber rings KENET strategy is to backup last mile fiber links for campuses with commitment of 20 Mb/s and above Redundant links and redundant data centers for backbone network over 99.99% availability 1 Gb/s and above last mile connection to 50 campus includes most universities on 30 Mb/s and above. Unlimited local traffic + Google traffic! Karatina Universityand SEKU Broadband Radio Networks 2015 Similar to Moi University last mile radio network in 2010 Next is JOOUST Last mile fiber in 2016 to Rongo, Kabianga, Muranga, SEKU and TTUC KENET policy of allowing bursting during peak hours and unlimited capacity at 6 PM 6 AM and weekends Benefits about 70% of campuses that on KENET last mile or Liquid Telecom primary links Highly Competent and Motivated engineering support staff We solve even the complex problems on your campuses; 12/7 support for campuses and 24/7 for backbone network
What is the real unit price of bandwidth? Weighted unit cost down to $100 per Mb/s with effect from January 2016 Unit cost of large universities - $70 per Mb/s per month High Cost Leased lines still the main constraint for KENET Only Liquid is affordable For institutions on KENET last mile, the unit cost is very low because YouTube traffic is FREE! E.g., UoN pays for 600 Mb/s but consumes 1,000 Mb/s; KU for 430 but consumes up to 1,000 Mb/s Are we competitive?
Access to advanced research infrastructures uptake is low! The Global Research and Education has many FREE research infrastructures High performance computing (e.g., grid computing or Cape Town HPC) Advanced instrumentation and applications especially for Physics, Chemistry and Engineering Research databases and repositories Access requires Digital certificates that are recognized by the community Identity provider who is this scientist or researchers? KENET operates a Certification Authority that issues Trusted digital certificates Accreditation by European EUGridPMA expected in January 2016 KENET operates the identity provider service for Kenyan community - This is similar to the roaming service for mobile phones; - Scientists accessing the global resources MUST have a passport issued by KENET
Thank You www.kenet.or.ke Jomo Kenyatta Memorial Library, University of Nairobi P. O Box 30244-00100, Nairobi. 0732 150 500 / 0703 044 500