Education expert helps Tanzanian colleagues

A university academic from Sheffield has spent a week in Tanzania, Africa, working with college lecturers to improve higher education in the country.

Dr Luke Desforges, head of learning, teaching and assessment at Sheffield Hallam University's Faculty of Development and Society, spent a week at Mwenge University College of Education (MWUCE) in Tanzania.

The college is situated in the city of Moshi, on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, and is in the process of becoming a university in its own right. Educators at the college are keen to develop partnerships with the global education community.

Luke worked with around 70 lecturers at MWUCE on the challenges of teaching large classes of students, and new uses of technology for teaching.

Luke said: "It was a great opportunity to share the expertise we have at Sheffield Hallam with a fast-growing and successful university college in Tanzania, which does excellent work in providing highly professional graduates and science teachers to educate the youth of the country.

"MWUCE wants to make sure its teaching staff are comparable with the best in the world, and its academics are very keen to connect globally with the teaching community. It's important for them to gain a perspective into other teaching practices in universities elsewhere. And it's important for us to learn what issues we share with them, and how they are addressing them."

Dr Philbert Vumilia, principal of Mwenge University College, said: "As MWUCE grows from a university college to a fully-fledged university we face challenges in ensuring that the quality of our teaching matches the quality of Universities worldwide. We share many of the challenges of other Universities: increases in student numbers, students who are children of the internet era, who have information at their fingertips, who need to know how to use this to make the right decisions as they develop their world.

"The workshops provided by Dr Desforges provided us with an opportunity to work with Sheffield Hallam University to gain an international comparison on our teaching from a high quality institution. The workshops have enabled us to rejuvenate our efforts, and to continue to learn more about how we can become a serious academic institution, and to use these gains for the development of our professions and the development of the society of Tanzania."

For press information contact: Joe Field on 0114 225 2074 or email pressoffice@shu.ac.uk