Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) has unveiled new standards and guidelines for university education, emphasizing, among other things, on the publishing process as a condition for students to graduate in Masters and PHD programmes.
TCU’s Executive Secretary Prof Charles Kihampa told local media that the third edition of Standards and Guidelines for University Education in Tanzania, 2019 was approved by the commission at its 95th meeting held on December 12 last year. Prof Kihampa said the guidelines are effective from the date of approval.
In a letter to all university and college heads in Tanzania, Prof Kihampa particularly pointed out sections 4.14.5, 4.13.7 and 4.16.7 of the new guidelines which provide for publication as a requirement for post-graduate students to qualify for award of Masters degree or PHD(both by coursework, dissertation or thesis).
For more than two years, the commission has been reviewing the second Edition of the Quality Assurance General Guidelines and Minimum Standards for Provision of University Education in Tanzania which was in operation since 2014.
Speaking to local media, Prof Kihampa noted that for a long time, the quality of publications by postgraduate students in the country wasn’t given much weight. He said the new guidelines have emphasized on many things, including the quality of research output from post-graduate students.
In the new guidelines, sections 4.14.5, states, “For a candidate to qualify for an award of a Master by research and thesis degree he/she shall accumulate a minimum of 180 credits and shall have submitted at least two paper manuscripts based on his/her research submitted to a peer reviewed journal and the journal shall be acceptable or recognisable by the respective University.
Whereas, 4.13.7 states, “For a candidate to qualify for an award of Master degree by Coursework and Dissertation he/she shall produce at least one draft paper manuscript based on his/her research results intended for submission in peer-reviewed journal, the journal being acceptable or recognisable by the respective University.”
And, 4.16.7 states, “For a candidate to qualify for the PhD award he/she shall have at least one paper published and at least two accepted manuscripts (articles/papers) in a peer reviewed journal based on his/her 136 research and the journal shall be acceptable or recognisable by the respective University.”
Whereas, 4.15.6 states, “For a candidate to qualify for the PhD award he/she shall have at least one accepted manuscript (article/paper) in a peer reviewed 135 journal based on research and the journal shall be acceptable or recognisable by the respective University.”
A full document on the new guidelines was on Friday evening uploaded by the TCU website.
Reference:
Tanzania Commission for Universities: Hand book on Standards and Guidelines for University Education in Tanzania, December 2019
