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Double admission adversely impacting varsity enrolment
The TCU executive secretary, Prof Charles Kihampa, briefs journalists in Dar es Salaam in the past event. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The number of students holding multiple admissions in the first admission window has surged from 20,858 in the 2019/20 academic year to 43,213 in the academic year 2023/24.
Dar es Salaam. The growing trend of students applying to multiple universities has been identified as a challenge, leading to the deprivation of university spots for other students.
Statistics unveiled by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) on Friday reveal that over the past five consecutive years, the number of students holding multiple admissions in the first admission window has surged from 20,858 in the 2019/20 academic year to 43,213 in the academic year 2023/24.
While 43,213 were admitted to more than one university in the admission window that was closed Friday, almost the same number, 43,411, were admitted to one institution, while 29,509 applicants missed out on admission.
In this regard, TCU executive secretary Prof Charles Kihampa, speaking to the media on Friday, directed the applicants with multiple admissions to confirm at one university within 12 days, from Friday, August 25 to September 2, 2023, in order to make room for other applicants to get slots.
“They will do this exercise using a special secret number sent by text message through their phone numbers or email addresses they used when applying for admission,” he said.
He said those who will not receive the message in time should ensure that they log in to the admission systems of the institutions they have been admitted to so as to trigger an SMS prompt with a special number that will be sent to them.
At the same time, TCU has announced another opportunity for new and missed applicants to continue applying to universities of their choice until September 6, when the second window will close.
“The Commission insists that applicants who could not apply for admission or were unable to get a chance in the first phase due to various reasons should make good use of this opportunity by sending their application for admission,” said Prof Kihampa.
The commission also directed higher education institutions to announce programmes that still have vacancies.
In the first application window, 116,133 students applied to join 80 accredited universities authorised to offer a first degree.
In terms of admissions, this year there are a total of 186,289 places, compared to 172,168 last year.
According to experts, the pressure among students to seek spaces in the only 80 universities approved by the commission has been prompting students to apply to more than one college to try their luck, and some even end up missing out completely.
But even so, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and stakeholders have been urging higher education institutions to increase their enrolment capacity and infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of applicants every year.
