THE government will in the next financial year, review the higher education curricular to improve quality of education that is in line with the national, regional and international plans.
On this, the government further said that it will continue to empower higher education institutions to take part in development agenda through research that will address challenges facing the society and equally attract lecturers and students from outside the country.
Tabling 1.7tri/- budget estimated for 2023/2024 financial year in Dodoma on Tuesday, Minister for Education, Science and Technology Prof Adolph Mkenda said that the plans are aimed at opening up more opportunities to improve the quality of higher education in the country.
To achieve the goal, he noted that the government will coordinate and increase scholarship opportunities for higher learning students.
"We will provide 100 scholarships for higher learning students in countries which cooperate with Tanzania and various institutions outside the African continent. In this, we will also improve the scholarship portal to students who benefit from the programme within and outside the country," Prof Mkenda said.
Elaborating, he said the aim was to link local systems with the information of students studying abroad.
In addition, the minister said that the State will continue to control the quality of higher education by coordinating admission and verification of 135,000 first year students, who are expected to apply for admission at the institutions for various programmes.
"The government will also inspect 15 organisations coordinating students who go for studies abroad with the aim of recognising them and check whether they met the requirements through the Tanzania Commission for Universities," he said.
In the implementation, the ministry will conduct assessment and monitor some 36 universities to verify their quality and at the same time, assess 3,000 certificates issued by the universities abroad.
This is simply to know whether they meet the required criteria and assess 200 programmes as they give accreditation to the students, who will meet the qualifications.
In a related development, the government will advance collection and provision of information of higher education, the government will improve Information, Communication Technology (ICT) at the TCU to easy access to information for planning and decision-making.
In his address, the minister noted that in efforts to enable more students succeed in their higher learning institution, the government will increase the number of loan beneficiaries from 202,877 to 210,169 and register 72,361 First year students for Digital Disturbance Solution (DiDiS).
In line with this, the government pledged to improve the loan access and record management system.
Meanwhile, the government has increased the number of beneficiaries of Samia Scholarship' programme from 593 to 1200.
Minister Mkenda told the National Assembly that the number of beneficiaries will increase in the next financial year to 1,200.
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The scholarship was named after President Samia Suluhu Hassan in her efforts to encourage secondary school students to excel in science subjects.
The scholarship is based on a student's excellent performance in science subjects and readiness to continue studying science namely- engineering and medical studies in higher learning institutions.
The Minister further said that besides the Samia Scholarship, the government will provide scholarship to 50 students through the University of Dar es Salaam, 20 students at the University of Dodoma with excellent performance in Science, Technology, Engineering ,and Mathematics especially to female students, who completed Form Six.
