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Executive Summary

Institutions of higher learning are seeking stronger relations with the alumni because the alumni are seen as resources to assist institutions deal with various challenges facing them. Among these challenges are:

• Dependence of tuition fees which may not be enough hence seeks alternative sources of funding.
• Liberalization of education leading to more institutions of higher learning and therefore greater competition for students
• Globalization that has led to opening of campuses of foreign universities in Kenya creating competition to the local universities
• Increased need for involvement of stakeholders in the development of programmes and review of existing ones to align them with market demand
• Limited employment opportunities for graduates making it difficult to attract students in some programmes hence the need to undertake greater promotional work by institutions.

Alumni of institutions can be very vital in addressing some of the above challenges. For instance, in the US alumni financial support may contribute to as much 15% of some organization’s operating budget. The alumni also play many other roles such us returning to teach, counselling graduating students and serving on advisory boards.

Kenya Methodist university alumni association has come up with a plan which has 10 objectives projected to support the university in realising its vision. The plan has developed various strategies to assist the university in overcoming the challenges the university is faced with. This will be done by establishment of a mechanism that will give feedback to the university on how to improve or review their operations to assist them to balance between the current rapid growth and the quality of programmes and services offered. In this respect, the association will embark on a dynamic quality assurance system, to assist the university position itself strategically through marketing for it; raise resources through fund raising to enhance the quality and relevance of the existing educational structures.

In drawing up the plan, an analysis of the associations’ current operational environment was conducted. The analysis revealed various opportunities and challenges. These include potential for sponsorship of needy students, potential for sponsorship of alumni projects, potential marketers of the institution, potential for networking, establishment of an endowment fund, potential to enhance the quality in the university, great potential to establish inter-institutional linkages and partnership

The analysis also revealed a shift in expectations of clients from mere solid benefits and an opportunity based environment that places emphasis on relevant and value base networking forums.

This Strategic Plan is anchored on 5 distinct but interrelated goals conceived through consultative stakeholder participation. It is structured into six sections where specific components of the planning framework are presented as shown below.

Section 1: This section presents a detailed introduction to Kenya Methodist University Alumni Association, its background, Vision, Mission, core values and governance structure.
Section 2: This section presents the revised strategic framework, goals, objectives and priority strategic areas.
Section 3: In this section, growth and development projections are discussed.
Section 4: This section presents the projected financing structure of the Revised Strategic Plan.
Section 5: This section has outlined the critical success factors and key implementation steps to be followed while implementing the plan.
Section 6: This section presents the implementation framework which outlines how implementation of the plan will be monitored, coordinated, controlled and evaluated by various stakeholders.