Case Study

Tanzania

 University of Tanzania 

Prepared by:   Dr. Egino M. Chale

Brief description of the programme

The Open University of Tanzania (out) is a pioneering tertiary level distance education institution. It is the third public university in Tanzania, but with a difference.

The Open University of Tanzania was set up after a history of more than half a century following the adoption of open and distance education as a strategy of increasing access to education in Tanzania. It is against this experienced context that the university came to be established by Act of Parliament No. 17 of 1992. The Act became effective on March 1, 1993, and the activities of the university were inaugurated in January 1994 when the first Chancellor was installed.

The university is a forerunner not so much in adopting the multimedia distance education approach, for even conventional universities are increasingly becoming dual mode, but in having been set up constitutionally as a single mode university. Apart from being independent, it is meant to be innovative, comprehensive in its programmes, as well as exclusive in its use of distance education, as certified by the Higher Education Accreditation Council of Tanzania (1996).

Location, boundaries, and mission

The three public universities in Tanzania to date are meant to serve the whole of the United Republic of Tanzania with a total population of about 30 million (1988) spread within 245,000 square kilometres.

While efforts have been in progress to grant the Open University of Tanzania a permanent home, for expediency, it began in temporary offices let by another institution. Finding those offices eminently suitable, the university has scheduled them to become their permanent home. They are located in Msasani township in Kinondoni, which is about seven and one-half kilometres from the Dar es Salaam city centre.

Despite being headquartered in Dar es Salaam, the university’s campus in practical terms needs to be conceived as the whole of Tanzania and beyond on account of its out-reach delivery provisions of distance education, namely, print, broadcast, and occasional face-to-face contact at study centres. Thus, in order to be accessed, the complete address of both the head office and the out-reach regional and study centres need to be known.

The university’s objectives and functions as provided for in the Act are two pronged. On the one hand it must offer the opportunity for formal courses to youth and adults leading to pre-degree, degree, and post-graduate awards, and on the other hand, it must provide continuing (non-formal) education programmes which do not necessarily lead to awards or qualifications.

It is thus open to all students 18 years and older and from all walks of life. The university serves mostly working adults with or without full-time employment where and when they wish and at a pace that suits individual needs.

Organisational structure, decision-making machinery, and academic processes

Although at face value the university’s organisational structure is elusively similar to a campus-based university, in practical terms the Open University of Tanzania’s organisational structure provided for a considerable administrative flexibility inherent in multimedia distance education. 

The organisational structure takes into account the central responsibility of providing high quality education through such processes as the development and production of course materials, technology, integration in teaching, their distribution and storage, and the delivery of back-up services. It thus has a dual structure: it is partly centralised and partly, if not largely decentralised through the establishment of regional and study centres. While this duality defines power relations between the headquarters and periphery, it also defines delivery processes: specifically, course development, media technology integration, publishing and production, pedagogy and teaching, and student services. All these processes need to be conceived as integral components.  Two separate charts are provided to illustrate structural relations and processes.    

The conically defined structure at the head office with the Chancellor on the apex as the head is the university administrative expediency designed to take into account of the national policies applicable to public institutions. The next in line is the Vice-Chancellor. He or she is the chief executive answerable to the Chancellor through the University Council, which is the supreme statutory institutional authority. Parallel to Council but in the academic arena, the top-most authority is the Senate.

It is responsible for all academic matters. Below the dual authorities are both statutory and non-statutory organs, including the committees of the council, faculties, institutes, and boards. The Vice-Chancellor is assisted by three Deputy Vice-Chancellors and the Registrar (Finance and Administration). All of these four officers are responsible and accountable to the Vice-Chancellor.

The Open University of Tanzania’s decentralised structure facilitates access to open and distance education for dispersed students who may on occasion be convened at regional or study centres. The regional centres are thus designed to co-ordinate and supervise the Open University of Tanzania’s activities for students, tutors, and the public.

Staffing

With the priority given academic administration, the university is designed to operate with a proportionately small core of full-time officers (35 to date) and a large number of part-time staff (95). To accomplish its mission, objectives are made feasible through the rational use of contracted expertise and facilities of other public institutions.

Currently there are five categories of full-time officers: executive, academic, administrative and management, technical, and operational or ancillary. Part-time staff, on the other hand, are of a wide range, both academic and non-academic. They are formally co-opted or contracted on a piece work basis as the need arises to perform behind-the-scene functions such as to writing study materials; reviewing them; setting assignments, tests, and examinations; and handling the production and distribution of learning materials. 

Thus the terms and conditions of service of the two principal categories of officers, full-time and part-time are different in statutory terms. On the whole the qualifications prescribed by campus-based university for their staff are enforced here too.

Programmes, mode of study, and academic calendar

On its commencement in 1994 the Open University of Tanzania started with four degree programmes. The following year, three similar programmes were added and, in 1996, one more programme was brought up. 

Thus the Open University of Tanzania has a total of eight programmes on completion of its first three-year cycle: the Foundation Programme, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Arts with Education, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science with Education, Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Commerce with Education, and the Bachelor of Laws. 

This array may appear to be quite ambitious but it is believed the range of under-graduate programmes reflect the great need for higher education in Tanzania. For the mode of study, the degree programme is arranged in three parts, with each part corresponding to one academic year at a residential full-time university. 

All candidates for the Open University of Tanzania degree programme are meant to take their courses by distance study methods. The main medium of instruction is through print materials. The main study materials for each of the subjects are called ‘units’, with each unit covering content materials equivalent to 35 one-hour lecture materials. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 70 hours studying each unit, spread over 10 weeks. 

Student support services are provided in the form of face-to-face teaching, audio cassettes, library services, and other learning media, laboratory exercises for science subjects organised at designated institutions, and teaching practice or field work for others as the disciplines may dictate. Theoretically, the pace of learning for Open University of Tanzania students (who are considered part-time learners) is designed at half the pace of the full-time candidates in the same course taught at the conventional universities.

To qualify for the award of the degree a candidate is supposed to have successfully completed study for the degree extending over a period of not less than six academic years. A study may take a maximum of two years on any one part provided that he or she does not exceed eight years in total. Earlier completion is possible for students who can set aside more time for their studies and whose progress from year to year is satisfactory.

In summary, the Open University of Tanzania as a national university is established to offer academic programmes to students throughout Tanzania. Its distance education method allows students all over the country to pursue higher education whenever and wherever convenient without interfering with their other personal, occupational, and vocational obligations.

The institution attempts to offer an intricate and integrated distance education system that combines expertly formulated study materials and text books, 35 full-time staff and 95 part-time staff, a growing number of study centres throughout Tanzania, an exacting range of tutors as well as self-marked assignments, exams, and a multimedia programme of educational supplements. 

The flexible method of study effectively surmounts the obstacles of distance and time, making academic studies available to additional youth and adults hitherto prevented from studies by technical difficulties.

Problems encountered

Implementing quality assurance

The university has adopted and adapted various processes that enhance quality assurance. Alongside the development of its own study materials the university has made use of transferred materials produced by other open universities. On the other hand the development of its own materials has been accompanied by training workshops, completed either individually or by course teams.

Completed draft learning materials are expediently taken to external course reviewers in place of subjecting them to trials by students.

The production of such materials also counts in one’s academic advancement as well as promotion. The university also liaises with all tertiary institutions in the country in order to benefit from their human and material resources.

It has also established links with local business organisations, external universities, The Commonwealth of Learning (col), the Association of Commonwealth Universities (acu), Association of African Universities (aau) and Association of Eastern and Southern African Universities (aesau). The Open University of Tanzania is thus keen in fostering close collaboration with relevant institutions, organisations, and agencies at regional, sub-regional, and international levels.

It has built into its programmes formative and summative evaluation so that regularly the performance of the institution itself, its working tools and its products (students) are systemically determined through external examining. Thus, despite flexible entry qualifications, the university enforces vigorous quality assurance mechanisms and tight control over the standards.

Using and integrating media in distance education

Adoption of a multimedia approach is statutorily provided for in the university. Print has hitherto been the ‘master medium’ for teaching. It is supported by radio, audio cassettes, field work, and face-to-face sessions.

Plans are underway to make use of television on completion of the establishment of a national network in the country. Interim plans in the regular use of the national radio broadcasting services initially thought to be free of charge has suffered a setback after its being transformed into a self-financing agency. 

Study centres are meant to be the focal point for student-to-student interactive learning and common listening and viewing of audio taped and video taped educational materials.

Instructional design and production for distance education

The didactic design of the university materials, in keeping with the central theory and practice of distance education, is marked with provisions of two-way communication. Their instructional design, unlike textbooks that smack of one-way instruction, reflect the dialogue and interaction processes of both teaching and learning.

Arising out of the instructional design is the convergence of two types of tutors: the course writer and the provider of student support services (that is, the course tutor).

The two terms: ‘course writer’ and ‘tutor’ as used by people in higher echelons of distance education are but conceptual constructs that are mutually related. Regrettably, however, research to date in a number of distance education institutions seems to suggest that the training of the distance tutor is not given as much prominence as that of the course developer and producer.

The materials’ design and development are actuated through both individual and team approaches all the way through the planning, writing, reviewing, testing, typesetting, and editing. 

Their final production is done by appointed printing agencies. By and large this task is handled by both core and part-time members of the university.

Learner support systems

Provision of learner support services is embedded in the centralised and decentralised organisation of the university and staffing levels. It is designed to have a small but highly competent cadre of permanent academic, administrative, and technical staff at the headquarters and at the regional centres.

Some decision-making processes should devolve to the periphery, where regional centres are used for such activities as face-to-face sessions, laboratory and field work, time-tests, and for final examinations. As discussed earlier, the centres are designed to be pivotal in the learners’ interactive activities. They constitute learning communities.

Up to the Open University of Tanzania’s fourth year (1997), about 4,000 adult learners have seized the opportunity to benefit from its wide range of professional, business, and other courses at pre-degree and degree levels designed to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Post-graduate programmes are in the offing. By the end of 1998 about 1,000 students are expected to receive their degrees. Their spread is set out in the following table, which shows student distribution by: programme; year; and gender.

The most important issue: Learner support systems

Institutionalisation of student support systems at the university, as has been the case in a number of the Commonwealth member countries (The Open University of Tanzania (November 1993) out Financial Regulations, The Open University of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, p. 1) has been threatened with relegation. This seems to have arisen out of an uncalled for traditional dichotomy between academic and administrative roles of such institutions. 

While course development, media incorporation, and the setting of assessments are taken as core academic activities, traditional student concerns such as admissions, registrations, study assistance, and the provision of learning materials and equipment as well as marking of assignments and provision of feedback tend to be probably inadvertently dismissed as of lower or less academic importance.

Instead of driving a wedge between integrated academic processes, institutions should strive to be held accountable for the whole of the academic administration. One of the most recent challenges the university has had to cope with is a daunting student:staff ratio on the average of 1:200, with correspondingly large submissions of assignments, tests, and examinations. This rise in student:staff ratio followed the government’s adoption of a retrenchment policy (The Open University of Tanzania (1995) out Staff Regulation, 

The Open University of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, p. 96) and a temporary freeze on employment that irrationally affected the nascent university. Faced with this challenge the Open University of Tanzania’s officers put aside the accepted dichotomy and addressed the problem related to the student record and management system with the view to improve and track the students while enrolled at the university to forestall drop-outs, withdrawals, and pushouts. In keeping with the university’s commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship, and public service, the student record management system project demonstrates the Open University of Tanzania’s dedication to developing and supporting sustainable high quality courses and programmes.