TANZANIA: Golden jubilee for Dar es Salaam

There was both pomp and protest at the University of Dar es Salaam's 50th anniversary celebrations in late October, which were attended by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both alumni of the flagship institution.

The presidents arrived separately at the campus, four hours late, and were met by angry placard-wielding students who had gathered outside the famous Nkrumah Hall.

Chanting slogans and singing songs praising Tanzania's founding father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the students protested grievances ranging from lack of campus accommodation to national power shortages.

But they failed to halt the golden jubilee celebrations inside the hall, where a roll of honour was under way to pay tribute to the early institution and its pioneers.

One of the first students who graduated, Julie Manning, was available to receive the honour. Manning was the only female student in the inaugural class and subsequently rose to become the country's first high court judge and first minister of justice.

The University of Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's oldest and biggest public university, located 13 kilometres from the centre of the commercial capital on the east coast.

It was launched as an affiliate college of the University of London in 1961, the year of independence from Britain, and in 1963 became a constituent college of the University of East Africa along with the university colleges of Makerere in Uganda and Nairobi in Kenya. The University of Dar es Salaam was established in 1970 through a parliamentary act.

At first the university college had only one faculty, law, with 14 students. The institution grew steadily over the years, to reach 8,000 students in 2000, according to statistics from the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa, HERANA.

The new millennium brought massive growth, and in 2007 the University of Dar es Salaam had nearly 21,000 students - growth of 137% in seven years. By 2007-08 there were some 3,300 staff members including nearly 1,000 academics - half of them with a doctoral degree - a student-to-staff ratio of 15 to one and 3,100 postgraduate students.

Before the anniversary celebrations, the university embarked on a fundraising drive organised by the two presidents, Kikwete and Museveni.

The university intends to raise Tsh17 billion (US$9.7 million), and so far around Tsh3 billion has been contributed in Tanzania alone. The money is intended for the construction of a student centre, halls of residence and expansion of lecture rooms.

In his speech, which was constantly disrupted by boos from disgruntled students, President Kikwete acknowledged the problems they faced. He said several halls of residence were in "a critical condition, we will start working on them".

The head of state stressed that his government was committed to tackling the many challenges facing the whole education sector in Tanzania, and had made strides in this regard.

Tanzania had long lagged behind other countries in the region in terms of student enrolments, he said, forcing the government to make unprecedented interventions to expand secondary and higher education, including building more secondary schools and the University of Dodoma.

Kikwete said Tanzania's four governments since independence had been grappling with the challenges associated with underdevelopment. "Our decision to give the education budget the highest possible priority in government resource allocation is the appropriate response to address these challenges," he said.

Regarding higher education, the president said that within five years Tanzania would launch initiatives to deal with staff development, rehabilitate existing infrastructure and construct new facilities, improve teaching and learning, extend ICT provision and boost research and outreach.

Implementing these programmes would require an annual investment of Sh52 billion, but the government was determined to support higher education development in partnership with donors and the private sector. "The government will also assist the university to implement its plan to construct 450 housing units for academic staff," Kikwete said.

Uganda's President Museveni, who studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, said his country had benefitted greatly from its graduates, with many top legal practitioners being alumni including most judges and the current chief justice. His wife, Janet, had also studied there.

Other high-profile alumni who attended the celebrations were Dr Asha Rose Migiro, a deputy secretary general of the United Nations, and Eriya Kategaya, deputy prime minister of Uganda. They were joined by Rebecca Garang, wife of the late president of South Sudan Dr John Garang - another alumnus - and several of the university's first professors.


Comment:

I am extremely happy to know that University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has celebrated its 50th year of founding. I had the privilege of teaching in this great university as senior lecturer in chemistry in the faculty of science for four years between 1993 and 1997.

I consider this period as a great moment of my life because students, teachers and Tanzanian people made a great impact on me through their social consciousness, friendship and political awareness. Some leading professors from this university became ministers and vice chancellors contributing to national development.

I wish this great university, which is always in the top 20 African universities, many more successes and achievements.

Professor T.K.Raja PhD FRSC , PSG College of Technology, Tamilnadu, India