TURKANA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
The Cradle of Knowledge
Deputy Principal, Planning Administration and Finance
Stephen O. Odebero is currently the acting deputy principal, Planning, administration and finance at Turkana University College and Associate Professor of Education Planning in the Department of Education Planning and Management at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology Kakamega County, Kenya. Prof Odebero holds a PhD in Education Planning and specializes in higher education financing. He has lectured many Universities including Egerton, Laikipia, Chuka, and Mt Kenya respectively. He is also an external examiner in planning and economics of education at various universities including Moi University, Maseno University and the university of Nairobi. He has authored over 50 scholarly works of international standing 6 of which are university level text books.
Some of his most outstanding works include: Education inequalities and Opportunities in the East African Region, 2nd ed.’ In SID, East African Integration: Dynamics of Equity in Trade, Education, Media and Labour and ‘The Place of MOOCs in Africa’s Higher Education’ published in the US by IGI Global. Arising from this publication, Prof Odebero is currently editing an international Handbook titled ‘Handbook of Research on Higher Education Financing and Management in Developing Nations.’
Prof Odebero is Kenya’s representative to the African Higher Education Collaborative (AHEC), a Division of the Council of International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). He is founder member of Education Management Society of Kenya (a professional body) where he also serves as vice chair and chief editor of the EMSK Journal.
On Social and community service, he chairs Matili Technical Institute Board and the County Education Board of Busia. He also serves on the National Committee for TIVET master Plan.
On research, innovation and consultancies, he led the universitywide study on optimal operation of functional units in MMUST: a cost recovery strategy. He is also undertook a consultancy with the Frankfurt school of finance (FSF) based in Germany on the ‘strategic capacity assessment of the Kenya Institute of bankers’ (KIB) where he was lead expert in charge of market knowledge and curriculum development.
He is also the leading education consultant with Deloitte and Touch on Lake Region economic blue print. He also serves the Commission for University education (CUE) as lead expert on higher education management.
Prof. Odebero has attended major international conferences, workshops and seminars. Because of his track record of scholarship in the area of Higher Education, he was nominated by the Ministry of education in 2013 to attend the Seminar for presidents of universities in Anglophone African countries held in the Peoples’ Republic of China where he also addressed the 3rd meeting of China-Africa think tanks forum in Beijing (see www.chinaafrica.cn/english/china). He has attracted major research funds from local and international agencies.
In 2014, he was funded by DAAD to a 3 months research visit at the University of Leipzig’s research academy to study causes of unequal cross-border higher education student’s mobility in East African Community. He is currently contributing a chapter on ‘Mentorship programs in Africa’s higher education: opportunities and challenges in Jennifer Boswell & Beverly Irby expected to be published in the US in 2017.
