The varsity that changed Tanzania's education system

The varsity that changed Tanzania's education system

Monday, 02 April 2012 07:32 Kenan Kalagho

The Open University of Tanzania has been present in Kenya and will be starting operations in Rwanda in the next two months. Kenan Kalagho of East African Business Week talked to Vice Chancellor Prof. Tolly Mbwette about the university's progress as it attains 20 years since inception. Below are excerpts: 

(The Vice Chancellor of Open University of Tanzania Prof, Tolly Mbwette speaking during an Interview with Kenan Kalagho of EABW.  Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
Qn: It is now 20 years since the inception of this university in 1992. It has the highest enrollment of students in the country. What has made it grow that fast?
Ans: The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is growing fast but not fast enough. This is because while other open and distant learning institutions around the world admit students with an 'experience' requirement, for us we have to abide by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) rules which requires a minimum admission requirement for students joining  higher learning institutions in the country.
The Tanzanian society has taken time to understand  us. People used to look at us as a second grade university but now that fallacy is disappearing in their mindset after seeing that most of our students land very good jobs than those in residential universities.

Qn: The Open University offers open and distance learning. How are the new entrants coping with the open and distant learning programmes?
Ans: There are very few direct entrants compared to direct entrants.  However the coming in of TCU entrants has helped a lot to change the conception of the OUT. Most of these students move fast in their studies and complete in three years .
We also realized that these new direct entrants need to be taught as most of them are form six leavers but we would want to use this system through the Open University of Tanzania Students Organization (OUTSO). We realized that if we give a go-ahead to lectures they might charge students more than what is required.
We have also created a programme that encourages students to study using ICT. We have developed a system where the university sells laptops to students at a low cost (US$270) so that many students can have access a computer to ease learning.

Qn: What do the direct entrants selected by TCU mean to the University and to Tanzania as a country?
Ans: With the increased number of secondary schools more students are joining the higher learning institutions. They are few students who become absorbed in residential universities because such universities need more facilities to absorb the large number of students.
Students prefer to join the OUT rather than residential universities mainly due to strikes in most private and public universities which affects their studies and performance.
This means that the government should make sure that the Open and Distance learning institutions are expanded as they are the only way forward in solving the problem of the increased number of students joining the higher learning institutions .

Qn: The OUT has observed several changes, among them being the switching  over from the assignment system of grading students to the new form of test and a final examination, what prompted you to adopt this system?
Ans: Since we removed the assignments we have seen that the aspect of cheating among students is no longer there.
The loss to student's assignments is also no longer an issue. This new form being applied at the OUT is much robust and resolute than residential universities and therefore a better way of grading students that aims at reducing plagiarism among students.

Qn: Would you say the new system is a better way of equipping and preparing professionals at your university to compete in East Africa and the world at large?
Ans: Students here are more practical than those in residential universities because here most of the students graduate on experience.
Students learning at the OUT have ample time to look for jobs and or be attached to different organizations while still studying.
This system is much better because we do not only grade students' ability through the test and final examination but rather students are also required to fill in the Student Progressive Portfolio (SPP) where a face to face session between students and lecturers is conducted in order to assess the ability of a particular student before undertaking their final examination.

Qn: What challenges is the university facing?

Ans: There are a number of challenges we are facing, one of them being funding. We hardly get funds from the government and we use the little resources we have to develop and move this institution forward. We urge the government to use the unit cost as a basis in funding universities.