One of the advantages of the pres­ence of higher learning institutions is to provide services to the surrounding communities. This is done to ensure that those communities benefit from the presence of such institutions.

Often these services are provided in various ways including improving com­munity services such as health, envi­ronment, and water or helping in other issues such as education.

Others go further to decide to award scholarships to the respective institu­tions, where some students are paid a certain amount of their tuition fees.

This is exactly what is happening at the Kampala International Universi­ty in Tanzania (KIUT) that has decid­ed to give back to the community by awarding scholarships to students with qualifications to join higher education on humanity courses throughout Tan­zania.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Citizen in her office recently, the University Secretary, US. Atukwat­se Judith says that KIUT offers 50 per­cent scholarships to students from the certificate to degree levels in humanity courses.

“The goal of KIUT is to ensure that we touch the lives of every Tanzanian because we know there are some stu­dents who do not afford to pay school fees. We have done this as investors in education in Tanzania, it is also part of our strategy to give back to society,” says US. Judith.

She says that the scholarship pro­gram offered, under the office of the Chairman Board of Trustee, provides 50 percent of the fees to students who qualify for the program under schol­arship.

“KIUT’s mission is built around helping Tanzanians having an access to education, therefore, to give back to the needy community, we have decided to offer this scholarship. We are all one and our goal is to bring development to this nation and East Africa in general,” says Dr. Judith.

The implementation of this deliber­ate initiative, according to her, involves collaboration with the Government through district commissioners (DCs) and Members of Parliament (MPs).

“Each DC across the country is given 15 slots similar to MPs. US. Judith.

She says KIUT has decided to use DCs and MPs to recommend the ben­eficiaries of the scholarship because those leaders are the ones who know the needs of their communities, thus making the exercise of finding those students much easier.

“Often these leaders are the ones who know the problems of their citizens, so they have a great understanding of who wants what at what time, so using them to recommend students in need has made this exercise much easier,” she hinted.

She notes that the main goal of the scholarship is to touch the lives of every Tanzanian because they believe that providing Tanzanian youth with edu­cation is the right way to bring real development to society.

According to US. Judith, the KIUT scholarships do not look at how many places the student has selected in his/ her exams, but whether he/she has met the criteria for an admission.

She says that the scholarship is about students studying humanity courses where after applying for admission and succeeding, they are qualified to get the scholarship.

“After the student meeting the crite­ria and obtaining admission latter the DC’s and MP’s sign for them a recommendation latter which the present at the university so that they can fill the form of the scholarship,” clarifies US. Judith.

Explaining about the loans board beneficiaries on scholarship, US. Judith says that often students who study humanity courses are not eligible for the loans, but if at all the student has met the criteria of the loans board and scholarship, KIUT still pays its 50 per­cent to the student’s fees.

KIUT’s scholarship beneficiaries

First-year Bachelor of Education stu­dent Ahmad Manzi says the scholarship has greatly helped him fulfill his dream of getting a university education of his choice.

“I thank KIUT for introducing this scholarship program because it has helped many young people from poor backgrounds with necessary creden­tials to study at the universities of their choice abroad,” says Manzi.

He says that when he got the infor­mation, he went to the DC’s office and collected the form, then after filling it in and returning it, he was called and told that he had met the criteria for the scholarship.

For her part, Zaituni Abeid, who is a first-year diploma of Computer Science student, says that she did not know how she would be able to further her studies due to her inability to afford fees and other expenses, but KIUT had helped her fulfill her dream.

Tanzanians to study in Uganda

She says currently a Tanzanian who needs to study at Kampala University in Uganda can pay the fees using Tan­zanian currency.

This has come to the majority’s atten­tion because previously Tanzanians had to pay fees in Ugandan currency to study in Uganda, so it was causing an inconvenience to the parents who had to send money, and then the students converted that money to Ugandan cur­rency so they could pay the fees.

“For any student who needs to study in Uganda, they can pay the fee using Tanzanian currency while they are not here. This has helped simplify payment activities and make it easier for parents and guardians to pay fees without send­ing money to the student in Uganda,” says US. Judith

Source: Mwananchi Newspaper