THE Moshi Cooperative University (MoCU) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alfred Sife said the number of students admitted at the institution has continued to increase every year.
He said in this 2022/2023 academic year, a total of 4,490 students have been admitted at the university.
Prof Sife made the remarks over the weekend during the eighth graduation ceremony of the university which was held at MoCU grounds.
According to him, the increase of 4,490 students has made a total number of students pursuing their studies at the institution to reach 8,820.
“The increase in students has led the MoCU’s management to continue improving the teaching infrastructure, along with funding some lecturers to increase their levels of education in order to improve the education provided by the institution”.
“One of the challenges we have at the university is shortage of staff, including lecturers, their (lecturers) number is less compared to our needs; in order to face this challenge, 46 lecturers are now subject to further studies,” he said.
He said that education at the college is implemented through a total of 36 study programmes, where he said that the institution also provides education through various workshops as well as educational seminars for savings and credit cooperative societies (Saccos) as well as in agricultural and marketing cooperative societies (Amcos).
“The university will continue to cooperate with various stakeholders from inside and outside the country in running its activities; may I take this opportunity to appeal to various development stakeholders to continue cooperating with our institution so that it (university) will continue to achieve its intended goals of providing quality education,” he said.
Commenting on the future plans related to the university, Prof Sife said that it included increasing the teaching infrastructure at the university and that in achieving that goal, there were already several ongoing projects meant to improve the said infrastructure.
“Here at the Moshi campus, we are continuing with the construction of a modern library that will have the capacity to serve 2,500 people at a time, as well as construction of four lecture halls and the construction of a four-storey building that will be used as a hostel to host students, to mention but a few ongoing projects,” he noted.
Earlier, the Vice Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the university, Dr Marina Njelekela, commended the government through its Ministry of Education for continuing to give its cooperation to the university, which she said was one of the contributions that led to the success of the university.
“Also, the government through its ministry related to cooperatives, has given and continues to make a big contribution to improving the cooperative education provided by our institution, including that of providing advice that contributes to the improvement of the cooperative sector in this country,” she added.
Dr Nsekela further said that the continued surging of the number of students who join the university and those who graduate every year was a clear indication that the college contributed a lot in the availability of experts in various fields, whom she said were continuing with their activities inside and outside the country after graduating.
“The well-being of any nation depends on professionals who can contribute to the development of their respective nations, and this include experts in various fields after obtaining quality and reliable education that is recognised internationally; it is due to these facts that we at MoCU continue to improve our programmes”, she said.
During the graduation ceremony, the Chancellor of the Moshi Cooperative University (MoCU) who is the former Speaker of the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr Pius Msekwa, awarded a total of 4,356 graduates with their respective educational awards, including Masters Degrees.
