Mkude, Daniel and Brian Cooksey, and Lisbeth Levey. (2003) “Higher Education in Tanzania” Oxford: James Currey Press.
Much of the text seems to have the efforts of the Faculty of Engineering (FOE) in mind as an example for the rest of the University’s administrators and faculty. How realistic is this, when other programs have a less readily available access to job creation, money-making programs than engineering (perhaps) inherently has?
Chapter One: Historical Background
UDSM established in 1961 – constituent college of the University of London. In 1963, shifted to constituent college of the University of East Africa. In 1970, independent status achieved (same time as Nairobi and Makerere). In 1964, college moved to its current location.
Head of State holds titular role of university Chancellor – just as this could be use as useful in keeping the university in a high profile (read: strong) position politically, it can be seen as the mirror reverse, “politicizing” the university, and role of tertiary education generally.
Musoma Resolution (1974) – political decree that mandated student admission to university ONLY if the applicant had completed one year of compulsory national service AND had a minimum of two years satisfactory work experience AND good references (very politicized aspects of an admissions process).
1970s era political decisions changed the nature of the university in Tanzania’s education system, and focused the institutional on a development education (development FOR education) path. TANU’s former Executive Secretary was made Vice-Chancellor of the university at one point – another clearly political decision – and a forceful step in institutionalizing party control of the university.
In this era (1970s), the Economic Research Bureau (ERB), Bureau of Resource Assessment and Land Use Planning (BRALUP – presently the Institute of Resource Assessment), and the Institute of Kiswahili Research and the Institute of Adult Education were formed.
To some (page 4): “Dar es Salaam soon became known as the prototype of the Developmental University truly responsive to society.”
Development Studies courses were made mandatory for first and second year students (all fields), and field attachments (practicals) were integral aspects of professional courses (e.g. education, engineering), and eventually for all fields of study.
Students became active as well – “vigorously debating” development issues of the nation, and ways in which to use university training to accomplish these. University Students African Revolutionary Front (USARF) and TANI Youth League eventually formed on campus. This did not mean there was no unrest – 1966 – 223 students expelled for demonstrating against compulsory national service. 1971 – once independent status was achieved by the university, students protested against “oppressive new structures” imposed by the new Vice Chancellor (former TANU ExecSec). This event is known as the Akivaga Crisis – sit-ins, boycotts, etc. ensued.
Opposing viewpoints on these protests: (1) a rejection by students of authoritarian development ideologies; (2) incipient bureaucratization of a public institution. The Mungai Committee investigated the Akivaga Crisis – ended up installing student representatives on many now formally democratic university structures and committees – participatory democracy in action. Also, university staff formed a its own organization – the UDSM Staff Association, or UDASA.
Financial and political crises deepened in the mid to late 1970s, as the East African community collapsed, Idi Amin was deposed by Tanzanian forces, and Tanzania continued to support liberation efforts in southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa). With international impacts such as the oil embargo, this crippled TZ’s economy, and reduced the investment in the university. At various points, senior faculty were summarily retired, 350 students expelled for protesting Parliamentary decisions, and numerous expatriate lecturers sacked. This contributed to a malaise that would be felt throughout the university into the 1990s. Neglect of students and staff; lack of consultation on major decisions; unilateral decision-making; bureaucratic expansion, inefficiency, and domination of the university. Development focus gives way to power politics.
Salaries fell for faculty and staff in the 1980s, into the 1990s, even as 14% more staff were added. Enrollment remained consistent, but resources (space, books, supplies) did not. Salaries as a percentage of the total budget increased (again, due to more staff, NOT larger or even constant salaries).
1988, in response, a professional academic, Geoffrey Mmari, is named Vice Chancellor. The Faculty of Engineering embarks on a transformative program that would shake up the university. 1990/91 student protests end up in riots, and the university closed for 8 months. In 1990, another academic is appointed chief administrative officer. January 1991, the Management Effectiveness Review Report is released – it is a comprehensive SWOT-like analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the university. Workshops are held to spread the word on this, and begin to work out solutions. This effort segued into the Engineering effort, and helped the university shift from piecemeal approaches to improvement that satisfied few and antagonized many, to a broader developmental approach.
Faculty of Engineering review –1989 internal workshop – revealed many faculty were having to seek outside wage employment in order to continue working at the pay levels of the university. This “supplemental work” was threatening the university, but the university had few funds to correct for this. The traditional donors to the Faculty (GTZ and Switzerland’s SDC) provided resources that essentially protected Engineering faculty from this economic threat status – it also introduced performance-based incentive schemes – a consulting arm (the Bureau of Industrial Cooperation) was created that permitted outside work by faculty – in fact organized such work for them – but did so with the protection of the university in mind.. Also created were research funds that could spare some of the stress that came from inadequate funding. This effort by Engineering became something of a model for other faculties in the university.
Donor-GoT “frame agreements” – an outflow of GTZ and SDC (plus NORAD) funding and influence. Rather than fund individual departments directly, the donors agreed to fund the institution –though with an “understanding” as to how such funding would be used. Such frame agreements put pressure on the university to keep the WHOLE INSTITUTION afloat in ways that the more focused donation of funds to specific, individual departments couldn’t (that is, if NORAD funded chemistry, this did nothing to ensure that biology would be supported by the government).
In less direct ways general public service reform, reduced bureaucratization across the public sector economy and general reduction in the public payroll has reduced bureaucratic practices, and freed the university.
By the mid 1990s, Tanzania was well-embarked on a reform process. It was receiving assistance from UNESCO, the Association of African Universities, the Economic Commission for Africa, and a trio of South African institutions: the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET); the South African Association of Institutional Research (SAAIR), and the University Science, Humanities and Engineering Partnerships in Africa (USHEPIA).
Chapter Two: The Process and Impact of Institutional Reform
The late 1980s, early 1990s initial effort, the Institutional Transformation Programme (ITP) objectives – broad analysis and increased awareness of university SWOT; consensus determination of the institutional mission, objectives, strategic plan, policies, etc.; and, an institutional development process that valued scholarship, rational dialogue, and consensual relationships.
1993 – Corporate Strategic Plan for the university is accepted in August 1994 by the University Council. Again, it provides a SWOT analysis (plus stakeholders, inputs, outputs) of the university’s circumstances, and maps out routes to improvement. The first five-year plan is adopted in July 1996. Since then, this “rolling strategic plan” has been undertaken within each faculty and institute of the university.
New Governance created:
(1) Steering Committee – includes Vice-Chancellor, Chief Academic Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, Dean of Commerce and Management, Dean of the Faculty of Education, and Manager of the Programme Management Unit (see below). This body ensures set up and function of the PMU; appoints members to the PMU Management Team and defines how they will serve; acts on PMU suggestions; oversees finances of the PMU; etc.
(2) Programme Management Unit – responsible for creating, tasking, and monitoring task forces and studies pertinent to the university community’s reform efforts; identify internal/external consultants for the reform analysis process; promote the reform process internally and externally; mobilize resources to assist in the reform effort – financial, political physical, etc.; and, monitor the transfer of the reform process into regular UDSM structures and offices.
The authors state that most faculty and staff support the ITP reform effort, though specific grievances do arise. Noted by the authors is the faculty dissatisfaction with a decision taken in 1997 to remove the appointment of deans, directors, and department heads from an elective process to a search committee process. The “search committee process” was seen, by faculty/staff, as being no les prone to the cronyism, tribalism, vote influencing charges brought against the open voting.
Student response has been less positive, as one fundamental result of the shift to a market-based, open administrative operation is that student security in terms of job placement is reduced, student access to specific resources and space on campus is reduced (as enrollments soar so as to generate income)., etc. The old “sense of entitlement,” elitism that came with being a student in an African university (perhaps the top .05% of the nation’s population) is gone, and students struggle to redefine their position in society, as well as at the university itself. Riots and protests are common manifestations of this redefinition.
Page 22 - in April 2000, engineering students, angered at having to share lecture hall space during exams with law students, protested, and rioted, caused damage, undertook sit-ins in the Vice’s offices, and were eventually expelled (15 completely, many others temporarily).
Staff are represented by the Researchers, Academicians and Allied Workers Union (RAAWU), but RAAWU is largely support staff oriented and focused. As such, it is something of a weakened position, as the government, along with the university administration, and most faculties, seek ways to rationalize university programs and offerings in a sustainable manner.
Regarding the status of UDSM graduates in the jobs market, the Faculty of Engineering is again at the forefront. Graduates are regularly surveyed as to their plans and realities once having finished. The authors note weakness in how these surveys have been formatted and reported over the years, but some trends are identifiable. Unemployment is not found, though longer time spent finding initial employment is consistently reported. With para-statals no longer playing as key a role in employing graduates 9from 84% in 1977-80 down to 64% in 1992-94), and private business not yet able to do so in a large enough scale, many younger graduates express a desire to be self-employed. Also seen is an increased feeling among graduates that there program of study was not fully adequate – a clear function, perhaps of the length of time it takes to find work, and so debatable as to how “adequate” gets defined, and by whom, for what purpose.
The Faculty of Commerce and Management also undertook studies, and found that the majority of their graduates who are unemployed are more recent graduates, who are not cited as being as well prepared as prior graduates, and who themselves cite a greater interest in self-employment. Deeper specialization while at UDSM in computer science and entrepreneurial studies would have been of interest to these graduates.
Research quality and efforts, and the impact of restructuring on these – the 1998 UDSM Research Policy report details the processes, of identifying research areas, priorities, preparation, procedures, funding, etc. In short, the subsequent reports about these new processes shows disappointment in how the university is managing this aspect of academic life. Excess reliance on outside funding for research possibilities is cited. So too, is an over-interest in short-term consultancies (which jack up income nicely) over longer term, basic research work. New knowledge is no longer being created.
External reports about this are less negative – page 28 holds an analysis of UDSM research contributions to national development – as from the perspective of SIDA/SAREC (Swedish development agency, and its research arm). That the development organization sees benefits to research seems to confirm the university’s position on lack of effort in “basic research.”
1999 evaluation of the transformation process at UDSM – done both by internal and external evaluators, was largely positive. Subsequent chapters may detail a bit more about this – which is the full (and thus insubstantial) content of the final three paragraphs of this chapter.
Chapter Three: The Ingredients of Institutional Transformation
Poor financial circumstances – underfunding chronic for decades. External assistance is responsible for capital investment, post-graduate training, and research. The government pays only for the most rudimentary facilities and programs.
Outside support for the above, though, brings outside desire to control activities and agenda. Thus, the “framework discussions” between Norwegian, Belgian, and Tanzanian officials on managing external; support in a more organized way. Major donors table page 32: NORAD (construction); SIDA (research); Netherlands (various supports); DANIDA (research); Belgium (various supports); IDRC (research); GTZ (engineering); Ireland (engineering) – all listed as separate entries. Two-thirds of donor support to science and engineering.
Donor support, while helpful in addressing the agenda of the donors and individual faculty members, is cited as not being supportive of the ITP proposed by the university administration and the government.
The university administration has tapped fee-payment, commercialization of university services (e.g. the Dar es Salaam University Press); income generation (e.g. conferences, secretarial services, etc.); and formal university consultancy. This last idea is expounded upon – at the individual department/faculty level, such an idea works well (see Engineering example, above). However, at the more diffused university-level, where no direct programming happens, it is too far away from the actual operations of programs to be effective.
As a result of too-diffuse consultancy work, the university loses overhead, the university loses quality control, the faculty member loses formal job advancement points, and faculty teaching time suffers.
Academic audit of the university conducted in 1997-98. The audit found that of the 653 departments of the university, more than 60% (39 of the 63 departments) had either NEVER changed their curriculum, or had not done so in more than 25 YEARS!! As such, there is little or no formal pathway through which new knowledge is integrated into the curricula of these departments – all change is ad hoc.
Responses to this have included review and subsequent shift to semester schedules, rationalization of programs to eliminate duplication, etc.
The university Computing Centre is profiled. A 1995 agreement with Delft University (Netherlands) aided in linking UDSM with a “backbone system” of fiber-optic wiring that connected all 26 major academic buildings to online services. The health services and architecture schools are linked via wireless system. The university still has difficulty providing computers to undergraduates (most grads get computers as part of their donor financing). The Computing Centre acts as internet service provider (ISP) to other academic institutions in Dar es Salaam, and offers subsidized web access to students. The Computing Centre also manages the university’s website: www.udsm.ac.tz.
The Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences (FASS) – has nine separate departments – came late to the technology and strategic planning efforts. The authors state, however, that the various departments have embraced the strategic planning ideas and are planning together – including the spending of university funds on computers for a shared lab, and the use of Ford Foundation grants to two departments on computer acquisition. Still, skills of undergraduates (and graduate students) at information and communications technology (ICT) is somewhat lacking in FASS, as are courses devoted to showing students the rudiments of information searches and retrieval.
Info on FOE and the Faculty of Science, and their uses of technology, and the limits imposed by lack of financial resources (esp. on Sciences) is mentioned briefly.
Then UDSM Library – LIBIS – Library Information System – funded by the Netherlands – basically put library offerings on the computer network, made it accessible via LANs in various buildings. Up to the date of publication of this text, 1% of university holdings (10,000 items) have been entered in this operational database. This leaves CD-ROM based storage, and old-school hard copy search as the only ways to go for student, researchers, etc.
African Virtual University efforts are described at UDSM – the initial phase, 1997-1999, was characterized by little use, as the donated computers are relatively slow for the purpose used, and have little storage capacity, the satellite connections are downlink only, and the power supply is only intermittent. Improvement in subsequent phases is expected to come through increased connection between the FOE (which already offers computer engineering and computer science degree programs) and the AVU – an online degree program is planned.
Chapter Four: Economic, Political and Educational Sector Transformations
Chapter starts with recitation of the difficulties faced in Tanzania from corruption (too much, and too little fought against); economic circumstances that have expanded international debt to more than $9 billion; and little chance of getting out of this cycle, unless something major – such as debt relief – comes about.
From 1988 to 1998, enrollment in primary schools actually DECLINED from 67% (1988) down to 57% (1998). Secondary enrollments, however, increased 56% in the same period – so, fewer kids starting school, but more kids staying in school longer. Disparities are seen in the urban-rural mix (greater access in urbanized areas), as well as the gender specific enrollment mix (boys favored over girls, with the disparity growing as advancement in school age is seen). Education is shown to clearly offer economic benefits- at least in aggregate – secondary school graduates make three (males) to nine (females) time as much as non-graduates.
National Higher Education Policy – to increase access to education – especially for girls and rural dwellers, to move from liberal arts predominance among students to a more science oriented student body, to maintain funding levels and increase them where possible, etc.
The focus on expanded opportunity at the primary level, which characterized Tanzanian policy in the 1970s and 1980s, led to a flat enrollment period (1984-1993) at UDSM and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). In fact, from 1986-1990, enrollments at SUA actually decreased by 17%. Since 1990, however, the has been a relative explosion in new tertiary level institutions – almost all private. Bukoba University, Tumaini University (operated by the Lutheran Church, with campuses in Iringa, Arusha, and Moshi), Augustine University (operated by the Catholic Church – in Mwanza), two medical colleges in Dar es Salaam, and efforts underway to create two universities on Zanzibar.
Overall, UDSM plans are for an broad expansion of its enrollments – over 130% planned for from 1997/98 to 2002-2003 – with the Faculty of Education leading the way with a planned increase of 775% (from 100 enrolled students to 875).
Gender dimension in enrollment: All this expansion at UDSM, however, has seen mixed results in terms of ameliorating the disadvantages certain groups experience. For example, women in some departments and faculties now actually make up a lower percentage of the enrolled student body than they did in the late 1990s (health practices – MUCHS; architecture and land practices - UCLAS), while in others they have seen marked increases in their representation (overall UDSM enrollment).
The authors spend a few paragraphs on the issue of dilution of skills among the incoming student body, as efforts have been made to increase enrollments of “disadvantaged students” (i.e. woman, rural dwellers, economically poor, etc.). Results presented indicate a reduction in test scores, and a perceived reduction in overall skills levels. Also noted, a perception among older faculty members that younger faculty are less capable of university-level work than their older colleagues (a generational issue, as the authors note, rather than necessarily a test-able hypothesis).
The authors cite the establishing act of the Tanzanian Government – 1970’s University of Dar es Salaam Act No. 12 of 1970 – as holding political, ideological language (re: socialism, and the role of the university in fostering socialist ideals) – as being a drag on the movement to change the university and make it a leaner, meaner player in today’s market economic world. A bill poised for submission to Parliament is briefly described – it would give greater autonomy to university administrators, as well as show recognition of the university’s role in the shifting/changing socio-economic world, and offer a more flexible set of approaches for the university to take to meet the country’s development needs.
Chapter Five: Unfinished Business
Reform began with initial focus on financial and administrative structures, but moved into academic offerings, and academic structures by the mid to late 1990s (academic audit of 1998-99). The unfinished business of the reform process, say the authors, is the following: what is being taught; how is it being taught; who is teaching it; who is being taught; in what environment are these activities occurring; what is the impact of these efforts; and, how is society in general being impacted and affected by these?
Four Critical Documents
(1) Report of the 1998 Academic Audit
(2) Five-Year Rolling Strategic Plans of Colleges, Faculties and Institutes (1999)
(3) University-Level Five-Year Rolling Strategic Plan 2000-2004 (1999)
(4) Proposed Priority Future Support Areas for UDSM (1999a)
Authors advice/suggestions:
(1) Conduct tracer studies to find out how what is being offered by the university matches what society is seeking. This gets at whether, in a limited resource world, what is being offered is pertinent to national development needs. Focus on student perceptions of the university experience; employers’ perceptions of the skills of their graduate employees; and graduate perceptions of what their learning experience was about.
(2) Student weaknesses in learning – especially around the issue of their English proficiency – should be addressed.
(3) The university must engage in a “massive recruitment and training drive” to make certain that faculty skills levels are similarly maintained, and increased. Incentives for continuing education and training even for advanced degree holding faculty would be of benefit.
(4) Establishment of a management information system for better coordination between otherwise autonomous departments and faculties would help make the university run more efficiently.
(5) Related to #4 above, creating a “smart card” system that would facilitate processing of registration, examinations, and other core activities of students would be similarly effective.
(6) A new organizational structure, acknowledging important distinctions in administrative focus, and helping to decentralize the UDSM structure and allow greater focus and creativity – establish a set of three distinct Deputy Vice Chancellor positions, one for teaching, research, and consultancy; one for planning, finance, and development, and the third for human resources management and general administration.
(7) Corral both consultancies and income-generation ideas and work to make each better at supporting the university as an institution rather than simply individual faculty or specific departments.
Appendix One: Excerpts from the Education and Training Policy
Just a few snippets about the mid-1990s effort to liberalize the establishment of tertiary institutions, and increase enrollments at such institutions. Expenses for these will be more fully shared by parents, students, and the institutions themselves (meaning lower levels of state subsidizing of this level of schooling). The acceptance by the government that information technology will need to be improved and increased is also noted.
Appendix Two: Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)
Independent since 1984. SUA has the following:
· Faculty of Agriculture
· Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
· Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation
· Faculty of Science
· Institute of Continuing Education
· Centre for Sustainable Rural Development
· Development Studies Institute
In 1998, the Faculty of Agriculture split its program into distinct degree tracks, so that agricultural economics and agribusiness were made separate from general agriculture and agricultural extension. A degree track course of study focusing on wildlife was also introduced, though the authors do not give a formal name to this.
Appendix Three: SIDA/SAREC Research Support to UDSM
SIDA (through SAREC) is UDSM’s largest donor, and an active sponsor/supporter of the Institutional Transformation Programme (see Chapter Three). SIDA/SAREC works less with the central government on tertiary education issues than with UDSM, citing overly bureaucratic, otherwise under-trained staff at governmental offices.
SIDA/SAREC supports the Basic Education Renewal Research Initiative for Poverty Alleviation (BERRIPA), but has not adequately connected BERRIPA activities with the Ministry of Education and Culture. The authors critique SIDA/SAREC for focusing on educational research that connects Swedish researchers with Tanzania research possibilities more than on linking Tanzanian education studies to matters Tanzanian. An example of externally driven research.
The authors pose other questions to SIDA/SAREC as to how well their priorities link to national (as opposed to governmental) priorities, and how well SIDA/SAREC research efforts focus on improved teaching (by way of one example).
The recent ITP focus on university-wide improvements, and organized, though decentralized administrative models for the university has seen SIDA/SAREC and other primary donors moving away from their earlier practice of supporting individual departments. Such support continues, but as a smaller percentage of total aid.
Appendix Four: United Republic of Tanzania: Key Facts
Basic socio-economic, population data: 30 million people; 2.8% annual population growth; 50 year life expectancy; $656 per capita annual income; 50% poverty level; 57% primary school enrollment level; a rank of 156 out of 174 on the United Nations – UNDP - Human Development Index; and 81 out of 85 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
Appendix Five: Tanzania: Economic, Political and Party Transformations
Tanzania’s shift from a one-party, socialist state into a more open society, multi-party state with market economy focus is described as a process ongoing from 1985 to the present. A weak political opposition prone to infighting, as well as a civil society not yet grown strong enough to mandate transparency and internal democracy make it unlikely that the current political elite will push to stretch the changes and attack corruption, political complacency, etc.
Later, page 103, the authors note how Tanzania once stood as something of a beacon to poor countries around the world with its focus on “Education for Self-Reliance” – a reorientation of school curricula toward the needs of a poor and largely rural society. Tanzania is now seen as a “quantitatively and qualitatively” remiss country in terms of its access and success in schooling its children and young adults. Government spending on education amounted to 27% of total government spending in 1994, falling to 24% of such spending in 1998. Within this expense set, salaries constitute 96% of education spending, leaving almost nothing to other expenses – this forces many schools to institute additional charges so as to pay for resources (books, desks, etc.).
A study undertaken in the mid 1990s actually found that whereas the economic return to graduates of primary schools was significant on an annual basis for both men and women, and secondary graduates seemingly have similar results – both primary and secondary education are highly subsidized, the socialized rate of economic return for university graduates is actually negative!! That is, university education is so expensive, and the formal employment sector so small, that graduates lose economic standing as an average SOCIALIZED result (meaning not that the costs paid directly by students outweighs their earnings, but rather that the overall cost, on a per student basis, is higher than the average return found by students once they graduate).
