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Articles · Vol. 2 No. 2 (2004): Journal of Higher Education in Africa · Pages 101-134

Cost-Sharing in Higher Education in Tanzania: Fact or Fiction?

Johnson Ishengoma

  • M. Johnson Ishengoma
    M. Johnson Ishengoma
    M. Johnson Ishengoma is a doctoral candidate at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He is affiliated with the International Compara- tive Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project in the Center for...
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Vol. 2 · 2004 No. 2 Journal of Higher Education in Africa JHEA

Abstract

In the early 1990s, Tanzania reintroduced a policy of higher educational cost-shar- ing, designed to slowly move some of the costs of higher education, which in recent years had been borne almost exclusively by the government, toward parents and students as well as toward other nongovernmental parties. This article reports research into the difference this policy seems to have made at Tanzania’s major public university, the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), with particular atten- tion to the enrollment of privately sponsored (i.e., fee-paying) students and other changes discernable in university finances during the early years of this policy implementation. The report concludes that cost sharing in higher education in Tan- zania is justified on the grounds of the sheer need for nongovernmental revenue for public higher education institutions because of the declining government ap- propriations to these institutions, along with the dire need to expand access to higher education; however, its implementation has been lackadaisical.

 

Cost-Sharing in Higher Education in Tanzania: Fact or Fiction? Johnson Ishengoma

Au début des années 90, la Tanzanie a réintroduit dans l’enseignement supérieur une politique de participation aux coûts. Cette politique vise à faire supporter des coûts relatifs à l’enseignement supérieur (exclusivement supportés par le gouvernement) aux parents, étudiants et autres organisations non gouvernementales. Cet article décrit les différences notées au niveau de la principale université publique de Tanzanie, l’Université de Dar-es-Salaam (UDSM), après l’introduction de cette politique, et s’intéresse particulièrement à l’inscription des étudiants qui s’autofinancent (c’est-à-dire ceux qui paient des droits d’inscription), ainsi qu’aux autres changements notables intervenus dans les finances de l’université, quelques années après l’introduction de cette mesure. Ce rapport conclut donc que la partici- pation aux coûts est justifiée, car les institutions de l’enseignement supérieur ont énormément besoin de revenus non gouvernementaux, étant donné que le gouvernement se désengage de plus en plus des ces institutions ; en outre, les insti- tutions concernées ont besoin d’élargir l’accès à l’enseignement supérieur. Cependant, cette mesure a été introduite sans grande rigueur.

 

Keywords

Tanzania Fact or Fiction sponsored l’enseignement supérieur

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Author Biography

  • M. Johnson Ishengoma

    M. Johnson Ishengoma is a doctoral candidate at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He is affiliated with the International Compara- tive Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project in the Center for Comparative and Global Studies in Education at SUNY Buffalo and also with the Program for Research on Higher Educa- tion (PROPHE) at SUNY Albany. He is a Research Fellow at St. Augustine University of Tanzania and a former Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Boston University. This article draws upon his Ph.D. dissertation, a study of the impact of cost sharing upon accessibility and institutional finances at the University of Dar es Salaam. Email: jishengoma@hotmail.com

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