CS urges increased enrolment in priority programmes
THE government has urged public universities to increase the number of students enrolled in priority programmes to meet the country’s demand of human resources.
The call was made on Friday by Chief Secretary Dr Moses Kusiluka during the inauguration of the Ardhi University (ARU) Industrial Advisory Committee, under the Higher Education for Economic Transformation Project (HEET) held in Dar es Salaam.
The HEET project is a five-year venture worth 972bn/- (a concessional loan from the World Bank (WB)), aiming at strengthening the learning environment and the alignment of priority programmes in the labour market.
“As the government continues taking various measures to improve the country’s higher education environment, it is high time for public higher learning institutions to increase admissions in priority programmes to meet the required country’s demand,” Dr Kusiluka underlined.
Commenting about the event, Dr Kusiluka said in order to ensure the HEET project is realised, there is a need to establish an Industry Advisory Committee which will act as the bridge between higher education institutions and consumers of ARU services.
“Since part of the main objective of HEET Project is to strengthen the learning environment and the labour market of priority programmes, close relationships between higher education institutions and consumers of the services that the college provides are very important…this is the main reason why it is necessary to have advisory committees,” he added.
Shedding light on the HEET project, ARU Vice Chancellor Professor Evaristo Liwa said his institution was given 68.2bn/- in implementing the project while the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic, Research, and Consultancy, Professor John Lupala highlighted the major components of the project.
“ARU, through the HEET project, is implementing the major components including construction and rehabilitation of physical infrastructure; updating curriculum; and introducing innovative pedagogical methodologies,” Prof Lupala explained.
He stated the project involves the building capacity of academic staff and university leadership, promoting self-generated income and building functional linkages with private sector.
“The areas of promoting self-generating income aim at increasing the financial sustainability of the university by developing options for self-generating incomes, such as commercialising research outputs and offering fee-based services,” noted Prof Lupala.
For her part, Ambassador Salome Sijaona, ARU Council Chairperson, expressed her profound gratitude to the sixth phase government led by President Samia Suluhu Hassan for designing and executing the project which aims at making higher education compatible with market needs through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
