Varsity students on rampage
A St Joseph University student forcefully boards a Field Force Unit van after the anti-riot police officers arrested him for taking part in a demonstration at Luguruni main campus in Dar. PHOTO | OMAR FUNGO
What you need to know:
They have given the TCU until Wednesday to give the way forward, as they threatened to barricade the Morogoro Road in a bid to push authorities to respond to their concern.
Dar es Salaam. Over 3,500 students of St Joseph University’s main campus located at Mbezi Luguruni on the outskirts of the city yesterday boycotted classes to demand the college management to calrify on their fate after the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) deregistered its branches in Songea and Arusha last week.
They have given the TCU until Wednesday to give the way forward, as they threatened to barricade the Morogoro Road in a bid to push authorities to respond to their concern.
TCU recently revoked registration of the Songea and Arusha branches after it discovered that they did not meet established university education standards.
Students who gathered outside the main gate yesterday said they had decided to do so in order to support those who were pursuing bachelor degrees in education and mechanical engineering.
The St Joseph University Student Organisation president, Mr Celestine Makota, told The Citizen that the students’ main concern was that the curriculum offered in the two ill-fated sister branches were also offered at Luguruni, but the TCU had not yet clarified on it.
St Joseph chief dean of students, Mr Mathew Ngulugulu, said the students were supposed to sit for examinations with effect from today, but much as they were psychologically upset, they were compelled to boycott them.
“We talked to them yesterday regarding their plight, but they insisted that they will boycott classes. We hope the government will give them a positive response,” he said.
