What Criteria Categorize The Best Universities in Tanzania?

The Best Universities in Tanzania?

Universities in Tanzania: This question proposes a great deal of issues to be done so as to unearth the whole matter which as it stands triggers a lot of curiosity through questions.

According to universityguru website the following is a list of the best 16 universities in Tanzania in 2024

1. Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences – Dar es Salaam
2. University of Dar es Salaam – Dar es Salaam
3. Sokoine University of Agriculture – Morogoro
4. The University of Dodoma – Dodoma
5. Mzumbe University – Morogoro
6. Ardhi University – Dar es Salaam
7. The State University of Zanzibar – Zanzibar
8. The Hubert Kairuki Memorial University – Dar es Salaam
9. The University of Arusha – Arusha
10. St. Augustine University of Tanzania – Mwanza
11. International Medical and Technological University  – Dar es Salaam
12. St. Joseph University in Tanzania – Dar es Salaam
13. St. John’s University of Tanzania – Dodoma
14. Mbeya University of Science and Technology – Mbeya
15. Teofilo Kisanji University  – Mbeya
16. Sebastian Kolowa Memorial University – Lushoto, Tanga

Stella Maris Mtwara University College – Mtwara

The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology  – Arusha

History of Universities

Before we look into the criteria of ranking universities in Tanzania let us have a look at the history of universities in the world. As we look into the history of universities, we only look at modern universities in the world.

As we investigate into the history of universities the conventional definition defines a university as an institution of higher education comprising of several fields of studies which include arts, science, graduate and professional schools and has the authority to confer certificates, diploma and degrees. It is differentiated from a college by its broader curriculum and the offering of graduate and professional degrees

The modern western universities that we take as models emerged from the medieval schools known as studia generalia which received students from different parts of Europe. These medieval schools had the purpose of education clerks and monks to a level superior to the Cathedral and monastic school. The first true university in the west was founded at Bologna, Italy in the 11th century and to be specific in the year 1088. It was established for the purpose of training students in canon and civil laws.

The Bologna university was followed by the university of Paris between 1150 and 1170, university of Oxford in the end of the 12th century. Universities received their charters from the authorities of the Popes, emperors and kings.

Universities were free to govern themselves provided they did not teach atheism and/or heresy. Independent universities had to finance themselves and so teaching charged fees, and to assure themselves of a decent livelihood they had to please their students which means they could be obliged to favour their students so long as they paid them well.

With time and more especially from the 13th century more universities were established in major cities of Europe. For about 5 centuries that is up until the 18th century most western universities  based their curriculum on seven and arts courses: logic, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music, and geometry.

The 18th century universities taught their students what today we may call foundational courses; the courses indeed we may call foundational courses: the courses indeed formed a concrete s concrete foundation which could be likened with that of a story building ready to receive several stories above it; the liberal art. The courses included: logic, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and music.

What were the major Tasks of Universities?

The major tasks of universities were to serve the interests of the time. During that time most universities were influenced by the Roman Catholic teachings. When the church reformation came in the 16th century precisely around 1517 – 1648, then universities defended their faiths. There were those that defended the correct catholic faith and those that defended the correct teachings of Protestantism.

The first modern university in Europe was founded in the 1694 by Lutherans; the university of Halle. The university of Halle was the first one to reject religious conservatism in preference to rational and objective intellectual studies, and this was the first place lecturers were conducted in a local language, German, instead of Latin. The innovations of the university of Halle were picked up by Gottingen university founded in 1737 and followed on by most German and many American universities.

Brief History of Universities in Tanzania

The following statement is taken as it is from the website of the relevant body that coordinates universities in the country.

The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) is a body corporate established on the 1st July 2005, under the Universities Act, Cap. 346 of the Laws of Tanzania with the mandate to recognize, approve, register and accredit Universities operating in Tanzania, and local or foreign University level programmes being offered by registered higher education institutions. It also coordinates the proper functioning of all universities in Tanzania to foster a harmonized higher education system in the country.

It was through the Universities Act that private higher learning institutions were allowed to start operations in the country. Otherwise before the said Act, the university level of education was a government matter. Universities belonged to the government and they enrolled only a small number of students. With the privatization of higher education a huge number of private universities were established. According to TCU the current number of universities institutions in the country is 49 spread in different regions of the country.

What Criteria are Used to Categorize the best university?

Criteria for categorizing universities could be a debatable matter even though there are some issues that are common and should be shared. Some of the matter that a university should have in its stock to be named among the best include the academic programs, faculty members, freedom and innovation, reasonable costs, affiliation with industry, infrastructure, hostel, extra curricular activities and university collaboration.

Academic Programs

These are the programs that can found at a university. These are programs that a student chooses according to their interest, ability and prospect of their future. The programs should be well explained so as to give a clear picture to a prospective student thus helping him/her choose a program of their interest.

Faculty Members

These are the experts that teach the different programs found in a university. The quality of these members promotes the quality of the said university. The quality of faculty members is measured by several facts. It could be measured by the level of education they have attained, the number of publications they have, their engagement and impact to the surrounding community.

Freedom and Innovation

Freedom is a necessary feature to a university student, while it does not mean that students will do whatever they want to do, but rather freedom means they are capable of translating what they learn in class, labs into innovation and contribute to society progress.

Affiliation with the Industry

A good university needs to affiliate with industries that can take their students for training, internship and eventually get employed when they complete their university studies.

Reasonable Costs

While a university needs funds in terms of fees from students to run those good programs, it should try as much as possible to have reasonable costs that majority citizens can afford paying for their children to study and acquire the knowledge and skills they need in life.

Infrastructure

A university is termed good when it has above average or simply good infrastructure to facilitate the teaching and learning process at the university. That should include good hostels and facilities related to such kind of needs.

Extracurricular activities

A good university should surely have extra curricular activities. When students go for university studies, their life continues. Since life continues then the students need as many activities outside class rooms and labs. They need to practice their sports, hobbies, and university life should surely be a totality of all important life activities.

University Collaboration

A university is not an island. A good university collaborates with different kinds of institutions in the world; local and international. The collaboration with other institutions give an opportunity of exposure to students to travel, learn from other institutions, learn from other disciplines and careers.

Thus, these are some of the criteria that one can use to measure the quality of a university. It is obvious that these few items are not exhaustive, there could be much more criteria but these represent the list. The question now is left to you and the institution where you find yourself- is your university among the best universities in the country?

How Should a student choose a University to study at?

I leave this question open and will be answered when you guys show interest on the matter.