The academic hitches defying TCU standards that led to the latest
intake freeze in a row of other sanctioned harassments involving closure
of the Catholic Church-run Songea and Arusha campuses, included an
allegedly poor quality education.
The decision by TCU at the SJUIT Luguruni campus in Dar es Salaam
comes barely a month after it revoked the registration of the subsidiary
campus in Songea and Arusha for failure to meet the quality assurance
standards.
The Luguruni campus was then spared, pending the release of
evaluation report from TCU before the commencement of the second
semester this week.
However, it was all not that bad news for the struggling university
as TCU released the evaluation report this week, saying it would not
revoke approval of the remaining Luguruni and Boko campuses in Dar es
Salaam.
“TCU has made its evaluation and found out that the existing
challenges at the Luguruni campus can be solved at the university’s
administrative levels under our supervision” the TCU Executive Secretary
Professor Yunus Mgaya told the Guardian on Sunday on Friday.
“We allow commencement of their daily academic activities on a
condition that they do not enroll new students for this academic year
until the outlined challenges are settled,” he said.
The Commission, among others, has ordered the university authority
to equip the institution with an adequate number of qualified lecturers
including Ph.D. holders and professors, to increase the number of
workshops, laboratories and other facilities.
Earlier, students at the university staged a strike in a protest
against high tuition fees and low quality education, but the Minister
for Education and Vocational Training Joyce Ndalichako ordered them to
go back to classes, amid pledges she would work with the university
authorities to address their claims.
However, Professor Mgaya confirmed to this paper that TCU is
currently scrutinizing the International Medical and Technological
University (IMTU) on its way to Kampala International University (KIU),
the two institutions notoriously chronic in violation of the
commission’s values centred on the provision of quality education.
“This is the nationwide exercise to awaken universities into
proper implementation of their duties and challenging them into
delivering quality university education,” he said.
He said a team of experts from the Ministry of Health, Community
Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, a professor from Muhimbili
University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and TCU started
evaluation processes at IMTU earlier this week.
He said the report on IMTU may be released to public if so deemed
necessary, noting the commission was especially keen in inspecting a
number of universities whose records call for consistent scrutiny.
“We cannot do it all alone because it is an exercise that needs a
lot of human resources, that’s why we have to involve professors and
officials from relevant ministries in this,” said Prof. Mgaya.
In February TCU revoked accreditation of St Joseph University
College of Agricultural Science (SJUCAST) and St Joseph University
College of Information (SJUCIT) based in Ruvuma region and Saint Joseph
Arusha Campus barely five years since its establishment, citing gross
underperformance.
Following the revocation, more than 3,603 students of the three
constituent colleges were transferred by TCU to other higher learning
institutions with immediate effect.
According to section 5(1) of the Universities Act, Cap.346 of the
Laws of Tanzania, the Commission is mandated among other things, to
oversee and regulate quality as well as the general management and
performance of universities.
