PhDs, according to an October 27, 2014 report by the Commission for University Education (CUE) will be the requirement for all university assistant lecturers both in public and private schools in the country.
CUE there gave the lecturers until October 2019 to meet the requirement.
Besides the academic qualification, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed also sent a policy paper requiring all public universities to negotiate individual salaries payable to teaching staff.
The two new directives have brought cause for looming crisis in the higher education sector as the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) argues that the CUE has breached the Constitution, which calls for public participation before implementation of the policy.
However, the court heard that the position of assistant lecturer is provided for in the collective bargaining agreement and cannot be scrapped without consulting stakeholders and the public.
On the issue of requiring universities to negotiate salaries with individual lecturers and professors, Uasu argued that the move by Ms Mohamed aimed at sabotaging the CBA signed between the ministry and the public universities.