TCU to admit more students for 2016/17 amid tight budget

Dar es Salaam. Even though 66,000 university students have missed higher education loans, the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) is set to admit more students in the 2016/17 academic year.

TCU said yesterday that it would open its Central Admission System (CAS) for three consecutive days from October 24 to allow over 17,000 applicants to submit their applications after reviewing their choices.

The TCU director of Admissions and Documentation, Ms Kokuberwa Mollel, said they expect to enroll 5,301 students with Form Six qualifications and 12,416 students with equivalent credentials, who were not admitted in the previous rounds.

“Nearly 61,590 students with Form Six, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and equivalent qualifications were admitted in the two rounds,” Dr Mollel said.

“But 20,000 more applicants could be admitted as those who took part in foreign examinations and results delayed are now allowed to apply” she said.

She said a total of 55,719 students applied in the first round, and 47,203 of them were eligible for one programme of their choices. However, competition could see only 30,731 selected, 19,049 of them males and 11,682 females.

She said 18,560 Form Six applicants ( 11,500 males and 7,060 females) were admitted in the second round. Also, 9,940 students from the National Technical Awards (NTA) Level 6 and equivalent qualifications were selected. She said 5,939 were males and 4,001 females.

“During second round, 28 students with RPL qualifications were selected. About 2,331 students were admitted in this phase through CAS admission system, bringing to 61,590 the number of students who were admitted,” she said.

According to her, 69 institutions, including universities, colleges and other higher learning institutions, processed applications through CAS. She said, this year, students were allowed to choose five programmes contrary to the past when when the choice was limited to three programmes.

She named the five institutions that allow students to make direct applications as the Aga Khan University (Aku), Muslim University of Morogoro (Mum), Zanzibar University (ZU), State University of Zanzibar (Suza) and Abdulrahman Al-Sumait Memorial University (Sumait).

But TCU’s decision would likely increase number of students with unknown fate, following the government’s decision to reduce the number of students who will receive loans to support their studies through the Higher Education Student’s Loans Board (HESLB).

Facing budget constraints, the government intends to provide loans to 24,000 students out of 61,590 who are expected to be admitted.

But the government has insisted that policies and regulations do not guarantee all applicants to receive loans from the loan board, saying most of the intended beneficiaries are those admitted into courses expected to support the government’s industrialisation drive.

“TCU is limited to admission and regulating responsibilities, funding remains the HESLB role” she said.

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