The Chairman of the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU), Prof Tolly Mbwette has cautioned against people pursuing sub-standard degree courses outside the country that do not meet specified qualities.
Prof. Mbwette made the caution recently when speaking to this paper in Dar es Salaam after some higher learning institutions in the country were awarded operational charters.
``Some Tanzanians are even admitted in on-line programmes offered in the form of cross-border education that appear to have questionable standards,`` said Prof. Mbwette.
He said: ``Higher education participation of Tanzania is low (less than 3 per cent by 2008) being lower than the Africa average of 5 per cent (2002),`` adding that that was no excuse for accommodating a situation where people went to ``uncleared degree mills.``
``I hereby caution members of the public from joining such programmes without clearance from TCU,`` he said.
As a regulatory body, TCU is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that all public and private universities uphold quality as well as adhere to standards and relevance of academic programmes.
On the challenges facing universities in the country, the TCU Chairman cited some as the difficulty of graduates fitting into the job market, due to the non responsiveness of the curricula being taught.
He underscored the need for revisiting academic programmes in order to part with tradition so that they develop well trained human resources compatible with market needs.
``TCU has the duty and do hereby remind universities to inculcate the culture of continuous updating their curricula so as to match with the emerging needs in human development and deployment,``said the TCU Chairman.
* SOURCE: Guardian, 13 Mar 2008
By Correspondent Michael Haonga
(note: the title is my own proposal)
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