SJUT’S ACHIEVEMENT ON 50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY

Karimu Dickson Meshack,

In its 5th year within the 50 years of Independence of Tanzania, which falls on December 9, 2011, St. John’s University of Tanzania (SJUT), owned by the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT), has undergone quite significant developments, aside from attaining many achievements on regional, national and international levels. In this 5th year, 6000 students are enrolled in eight (8) study programs in three (3) faculties {Faculty of Humanities and Education, Faculty of Commerce and Business Studies and Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences}, three (3) Schools {School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy and School of Theology and Religious Studies} and seven (7) post-graduate programs from the named Faculties and Schools. The current number of alumni reaches nearly two thousand. These numbers show SJUT's success in carrying out the mandate from the Government and so has joined hands with the fourth government to increase access to higher education for all levels of the people in Tanzania.

The idea for the ACT to establish and operate a University  started at its Synod Meeting held in 1999. The former Archbishop and our current Chancellor Rt. Rev. Donald Mtetemela emphasized the importance of establishing the Anglican Church University to provide higher education in a wide range of disciplines in Tanzania in order to respond to the country’s needs of eradicating extreme poverty, hunger and disease and thus provide improved life expectancy to its people.

For this reason, St. John’s University of Tanzania  strives for holistic delivery of university knowledge with a view to producing well-educated human beings theoretically, practically and spiritually; to advance knowledge transfer from one generation to another in the fields of arts, sciences, technology and learning; to provide facilities to conduct research; and to ensure the process of monitoring of the intellectual, aesthetic, social and manual growth of the students. SJUT’s success in improving access to higher education is not its only achievement. Hard work and untiring effort from all the components in the University has proven that SJUT is capable of developing and offering academic programs of recognized quality. SJUT and all its Undergraduate and Postgraduate programs have obtained Full Registration (CFR No 022) from Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU). In the academic field, aside from consistently providing printed and non printed learning materials of high, up-to-date quality which are self-instructional in nature, SJUT also continuously improves its various learning services for the students using the most up to date media, including the Internet.

Through its comprehensive SJUT Library, students can now access in online information through SJUT Library on Facebook and in an e-library which draws from a wide range of open educational resources from websites from all over the world.  SJUT is planning to provide online teaching/learning and a mobile laboratory as a forum for students and the entire Tanzanian Community to interact and share experiences to improve the quality of the learning process in their respective areas. The use of various types of media and technology to enrich study materials is also believed to help students from various levels take advantage of communication and information technology for their own self improvement later when they graduate from St. John’s University of Tanzania.

In regards to learning operations, SJUT continues to improve its services so that students get easier access to the University through the various tools/media available. At present, SJUT is perfecting its system of enrolment and payment of various study fees making it more integrated through a billing system. This is to improve accuracy of data so that there will no longer be students whose grades cannot be processed due to insufficient payment. SJUT also continues to improve its internal management system and its numerous supporting facilities to ensure better services for the students, including for its partners and the general public in need of SJUT’s services. Facilities and infrastructure at SJUT’s main campus (Mazengo) based in Dodoma, and at all Centres are getting improved to become better and more complete. The SJUT Main Campus and all its Centres are inter-connected, with Computer Laboratories and Offices connected with Internet with a high-speed fibre optic link.

St. John’s University of Tanzania continues to provide its services to the community around it and has even opened a new service through Science Society enabling primary and secondary school’s students and their teachers to access for and use our science labs and services. In order to ensure smooth operations regionally and nationally, SJUT is going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the government through Ministry of Communication Science and Technology of the United Republic of Tanzania.

As a Christian University;St. John’s University of Tanzania is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and proclamation of the Gospel; seeks to explore the tension between Christian and societal values in order to engender spiritual growth, high moral principles and commitment to Christian life and celebrates other traditions of faith and hopes to learn to live together with persons of all faiths without discrimination by complementing ourvision of being a Center of Excellence for Developing Humankind Holistically to Learn to Serve. We are a private University but we serve the public with quality education: We join hands with the government to make sure that Tanzanians are educated and so poverty is eradicated. And it is our belief that the government through the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in connection with the Ministry of Communication Science and Technology would sometime look how to help us on complicated issues particularly providing subsidies in Science facilities and equipments. We wish to assure of our commitments to vision 2025 and to making Higher Education accessible to all Tanzanians.