Scholarly collaboration in Kenyan Universities

Abstract

This article focuses on participation by Kenyan scholars in collaborative networks, specifically the extent of scholars’ participation in professional societies; levels of scholarly interactions among colleagues in universities in Kenya, and the nature of scholarly collaboration between scholars in Kenya and their international peers. The study’s theoretical lens was the Social Network Theory and employed a survey within a multiple case study design. Data was collected from 350 faculty and 370 postgraduate students using self-administered questionnaires. The study implied that limited participation by scholars in collaborative networks hinders creation of new knowledge and lowers scholars’ research productivity. The study recommends institutional interventions to nurture scholarly collaboration.