Prof Tolly Mbwete
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The
Open University of Tanzania (OUT) Vice Chancellor has criticised the
government system of recruiting academicians through its public service
recruitment secretariat.Prof Tolly Mbwete said knowledgeable people with good experience in various related fields should be picked to conduct interviews for recruitment of staff to work in higher learning institutions.
He was speaking at a press conference in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, saying academics is serious matter that needs to be dealt by experts.
The occasion was among events to commemorate OUT’s 20th anniversary which takes place at the headquarters of the university at Bungo, Kibaha in Coast Region.
Workers’ recruitment should be done by panels of interviewers from universities due to the specialty nature of fields undertaken at university, he said.
“If you want to employ a laboratory technician, the interviewer might have knowledge in the field, but we don’t believe the interview board of public service recruitment secretariat would have enough experience and knowledge in each field,” said Mbwete.
He added that the interviewer also needs enough knowledge and experience in academic activities like research and teaching methodology to be able to get the right academicians or people to work at university.
“There is bureaucracy because there is always a delay in registering the names of new employees in the pay roll,” noted Mbwete, advising government to ensure recruitment of university workers, particularly academicians, is done by the university.
Meanwhile, Mbwete called for review of law to avoid the big number of people who hold fake degrees from unauthorised universities abroad.
He said there are people, including political and religious leaders who get honorary PhDs from unrecognised universities, particularly at abroad.
“The current laws give mandate for Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) to identify fake universities but it doesn’t give the body the power to disqualify fake degrees,” said Mbwete.
He revealed that during the past few days OUT declined to award PhDs to seven Tanzanians after discovering the university in which they pursued a PhD course was fake.
“We stopped our chancellor from awarding seven students who pursued PhD in philosophy at a university in South Africa,” said Mbwete.
However, he noted that not all online universities are in that category but advised people to get prior information about the universities before getting admission to any university.
If TCU are given the mandate to disqualify fake degrees many people would enroll at authorised universities.
He said currently OUT faces a shortage of lectures and challenges related to adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
OUT 20th anniversary celebrations started on July 31and will climax on December 27 this year, during which certificates will be awarded to “individuals and countries that participated in bringing the success to the university.”
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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