Tanzania

University of Tanzania

Prepared by:

Dr. Egino M. Chale

Brief description of the programme

University status

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.

Figure 1: Existing University Decision Making Machinery April 30, 1996.
NOTES: (1) No Departmental meetings are provided for in the Act now approved by Council.
             (2) No Workers Council has been established or provided for in the Act by the Council.

 

 

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.

 

Programme	1994		1995		1996		1997		1998		Sub-total		Total
	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F
B.A.	173	15	47	4	54	7	45	5	50	5	369	36	405
B.A. Ed.	318	41	104	23	167	25	115	18	112	24	816	131	947
B.Com.	184	11	90	5	149	12	92	13	79	8	594	49	643
B.Com. Ed.	24	0	17	0	32	7	16	2	20	3	9109	12	131
LL.B.	-	-	329	26	445	36	300	33	260	35	1334	130	1464
B.Sc.	-	-	30	2	67	7	63	7	77	10	237	26	263
B.Sc. Ed.	-	-	51	10	85	8	38	8	50	13	224	39	263
Found.	-	-	-	-	194	34	182	41	189	60	565	135	700
TOTAL	699	67	668	70	1193	136	851	127	837	158	4248	558	4806

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.

Southern Africa Extension Unit

Prepared by:

M. J. Mntangi

Brief description of the programme

The Southern Africa Extension Unit (saeu) is a distance education institution. Initiated as a project during the 1983 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the unit was set up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in November 1984, to serve the educational and training needs of South African youths and adults living in exile in Eastern and Southern Africa. saeu courses for the exiles focused on the foundation and secondary levels of education.

The saeu took the following three transformational steps between 1990 and 1994 to cope with the repatriation of its traditional target group:

•      introduced vocational courses to the students;

•      extended the courses to the returnees in South Africa; and

•      reviewed the future role of the target group to other refugees and non-refugees. The Local Government Councillors’ Distance Training Programme is one radical outcome of the saeu’s transformation process.

The Local Government Councillors’ Distance Training Programme targeted 3,700 local councillors scattered throughout mainland Tanzania. The main aim of the training was to enable the councillors to carry out their functions effectively under the newly introduced political system of multi-party democracy. The decision to appoint the saeu to implement a distance education programme in the area of local government was prompted by the track record and the potentials of the unit in running other programmes that demanded the following features of innovative distance education institutions:

•       ability to extend services to a large target group which is also widely heterogeneous and scattered across a wide area of territory;

•       ability to deliver a quality-conscious course relatively quickly and at minimal costs; and

•       flexibility of the institution and its training packages in building a resource base for adopting the skills and course materials developed for training other groups.

Problems encountered

Planning and managing distance education

•       How to organise the training so that it could promptly reach a target group that was large, showed diverse characteristics, and was scattered over a large area of territory (four times as large as Ghana).

•       How to produce course materials that could be accepted by councillors from several political parties using an unfamiliar teaching approach.

•       How to get and maintain constant support for the main stakeholders of local government (that is, the central government, the local councils, individual councillors, professionals in the field of local government, and funding agencies); for example, how to solicit their co-operation by reviewing the project schedule against other divergent schedules and, in the light of long bureaucratic procedures observed, by some of the stakeholders.

•       How to organise a huge training project with limited financial resources.

•       How to design and make operable a learner support system making use of existing government structures.

•       How to cope with difficulties of communication in the process of co-ordination and monitoring of course progress.

Implementing quality assurance

All the challenges encountered while planning and managing distance education can be considered to re-occur under the theme of implementing quality assurance. Others include:

•       How to ensure that there will be maximum enrolment and minimal drop-outs.

•       How to organise effective learner support services.

Using and integrating media in distance learning

•       How to reconcile the inevitable bias on the print media and difficulties that would face councillors who are barely literate and those who cannot be easily reached by other simple media.

•       How to get optimal benefits from face-to-face tutorials without causing excessive costs to the project.

•       How the radio programmes could be utilised effectively to assist councillors; in situations in which reception was poor along the borders remote from Dar es Salaam, councillors’ initial and subsequent training could not be paced.

Instructional design and production for distance education

•       How to cope with the extreme range of educational levels of the target group (some councillors possess post-graduate level qualifications while others have barely completed primary education), as well as their wide age groups.

•       How to make the course materials adequately interesting, resourceful, and acceptable to such a diverse target group.

•       How to distribute large quantities of course materials over long distances with a relatively poor network of communication.

Learner support systems

•       How to take advantage of the benefits of face-to-face tutorials but minimise unit costs in the light of the high costs of organising councillors’ meetings.

•       How to locate study centres for face-to-face tutorials in rural councils where some wards are several hundred kilometres apart or separated by difficult physical barriers.

•       How to ensure standardised scales for assessing councillors’ assignments whereby the number of part-time tutors is large (more than 300) and their professional backgrounds differ significantly.

The two most important issues

Experiences dealing with challenges in planning and managing distance education

•       Two basic strategies were set up in order to deal effectively with the process of operation of the project and ensuring a smooth flow of information among the stakeholders. The first was the setting up of a Project Consultative and Advisory Committee and the other was to decentralise the management and training functions to the regional and district and council level.

•       All the major activities of the project planned and carried out by the implementing agency (the saeu), including course design, identification of course writers and editors, course pilot and review, support services and funding were presented to the Project Consultative and Advisory Committee for input and final approval. The members of the committee were drawn as follows:

•        Prime Minister’s Office, as the Ministry responsible for local government and regional administration;

•        Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania (alat);

•        Local Government Service Commission (lgsc);

•        Local Government Training Institute, Hombolo;

•        Commonwealth Local Government Forum (clgf); and

•        Southern Africa Extension Unit (saeu).

The committee was expected to meet on a quarterly basis and whenever there was an issue requiring its decision. The committee facilitated the flow of information to the relevant authorities of the government as well as to the grassroots levels, including the target group.

•       saeu played a significant role in training the trainers and co-ordinators of the programme. Trainers for this programme were located at three levels — the saeu head office, regional local government offices, and the district and council level.

As a result of the large number of trainers required (more than 300) at the regional local government and district and council levels and the extreme dispersion of their working stations across the territory, the training of trainers task was partly decentralised as a cost-cutting measure.

The saeu conducted short, intensive training for the regional co-ordinators in national level workshops. The regional co-odinators and tutors subsequently conducted training workshops for the council co-ordinators and tutors in their regions after reviewing with the saeu the peculiarities of their councils.

•       Management operations of the project were also decentralised on the basis of the national administrative blocks into 20 regions each co-ordinated by a regional local government officer, and 110 districts councils, each co-ordinated by a district executive director and course tutors. All the staff at regional and council levels worked on a part-time basis as project tutors as well as project co-ordinators at their own levels of operation. The district level was expected also to assist in the sustenance of the project by meeting part of the costs of the tutorial support services from the council sources.

Experiences dealing with challenges in implementing quality assurance

The following measures were taken to promote the quality of the services and materials rendered to the project:

•       accommodating a wide range of experiences in the preparation of the course materials and in the organisation of support services;

•       appreciating the special role of sensitisation and initial training in promoting enrolment, minimising drop-outs and contributing to the sustenance of the project;

•       focusing on the course materials and support services sharply onto the target group — some councillors were at an advanced age, other councillors had a poor educational background;

•       making optimum use of the pilot study — course materials and the network of support services were improved on the basis of experiences gained from the pilot study; and

•       conducting close monitoring and evaluation of progress including maintaining constant liaison with the field staff.

The following three issues illustrate the approaches taken by the saeu in promoting quality in the implementation of the project. The issues focus on experience sharing, pilot study, and sensitisation initial training — only two cases will be explained.

 

Experience sharing

•       The main forum for sharing experiences in the project was during the meetings of the Consultative and Advisory Committee. Other opportunities for experience sharing were achieved during the editors and review workshops, training seminars for the regional local government officers, and training seminars for district and council level co-ordinators and tutors and the councillors.

•       Experiences from outside Tanzania were accommodated by incorporating a member of staff from the Local Government Training Institute, Mombasa-Kenya, in a workshop that reviewed drafts of the course materials in September 1995.

•       As a result of effective sensitisation, adequate inputs were made by the field staff during the pilot study. Inputs made during the pilot study provided important guidelines for improving the course materials and the support services.

 

Sensitisation

The processes of sensitisation and initial training were intended to achieve the following goals:

•      make the relevant people clearly aware of the project objectives and demands expected of them;

•      promote enrolment level; and

•      minimise drop-out level.

Sensitisation was achieved through the following means:

•      meetings of the Consultative Committee;

•      meeting with the relevant authorities of the local and central government;

•      presenting papers during meetings organised by the Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania (December 1995 and December 1996) and in forums discussing training in local government; and

•      preparing and transmitting radio programmes.

 

Initial training

Initial training seminars and workshops were organised for the regional and district or council level project co-ordinators, tutors, and for the councillors in order to:

•      sensitise them on the project; and

•      give them adequate background about the course materials and the distance education approach.