The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) could soon have mandate to disqualify people holding suspicious academic credentials if plans to enact a Bill to that effect takes hold, the Guardian can report.
A reliable source at the Commission told the Guardian this week that proposals for the Bill have since been forwarded to the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training -- almost three years after a Tanzanian identified as Kainerugaba Msemakweli published a booklet containing what he described as a ‘List of Shame in Education’
He listed names of individuals – among them top government officials – whom he accused of possessing either questionable academic credentials or were holding papers from ‘unrecognized’ academic institutions.
Some of the government officials went to court while others stopped at ‘threatening’ court action against Msemakweli for what they termed ‘defamatory’ allegations.
A source at TCU who preferred anonymity told the Guardian that individuals who had acquired any such academic credentials from institutions that the by Commission doesn’t recognize will also face the axe.
According to the source, the Commission has been compelled to take action following increasing numbers of Tanzanians holding fake degrees from unrecognized universities, from outside the country.
Both the Minister for Education and Vocation Training, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa and his deputy Philip Mulugo could not be reached for comment.
The Guardian could not get a second opinion from the TCU either, where an individual who received our calls at the TCU maintained the executive secretary was not in the office.
However, the proposals would be handed over to ‘responsible government institutions, even though he intimated that internal preparations still remained ‘top secret’ and were yet to be completed.
He said that the current law does not give the Commission any mandate to disqualify fake degree holders, other than identifying the unauthorized universities dishing out such degrees. He maintains that there are, indeed, Tanzanians who hold such fake degrees – mostly obtained from overseas institutions.
"We have proposed that we should have laws that will enable us to disqualify fake degree holders … and we believe the law will help reduce the number of fake degree holders in the country", he said.
Currently, he added, the Commission can only responsible for inspecting higher learning institutions with a view to verifying education certificates held by to workers at the universities.
"We regulate universities and therefore we carry out inspections every six months in both private and public universities …we do this to make sure that the education they provide meets our standard," he insisted.
He said such regular ‘check-ups’ had helped reduce the number of fake degree holders among teaching universities and research facilities.
"We have been caught up with many university workers … including lecturers and researchers … holding fake degrees but the trend has since gone down," he disclosed.
He added that most of those caught holding fake degrees were working at private universities as lecturers and served at other posts within the universities.
He added that the inspections has helped private universities sign a memorandum of association with government universities to borrow lecturers and other staff they need.
The inspections also helped both public and private universities to increase the number of workers seeking opportunities to get back to school for further studies.
He said the new law would empower the Commission to carry out its work in much the same way as does the Public Corruption Combating Beaurau (PCCB) and ensure that the people holding such degrees are sued accordingly.
Over the past fortnight, the Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT), Prof Tolly Mbwette, has said there was huge increase of fake degree holders especially honorary PhD's among religious and political leaders.
He said the trend persisted because there no law that empowers the TCU to disqualify fake degree holders – revealing that OUT had, in fact, stopped its chancellor from awarding honorary PhD's to seven Tanzanian students who pursued their studies in South Africa after they were found to have do so from a fake institution
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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