On Saturday 15 December the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) held its First Graduation Ceremony. This indeed was a major milestone for a University established just a couple of months ago! An MD or DDS course takes five years to complete, and since MUHAS does not have a two-months course, obviously no one was expected to be conferred a degree bearing MUHAS inscriptions. But alas, MUHAS held its first Graduation Ceremony, and more than five hundred students graduated on that day!
What is your opinion about this? Do you think the powers that be should have rolled-over students admitted to the University of Dar es salaam (in this case, MUCH), clear them out, and wait to hold a REAL MUHAS graduation, several years to come, and not on 15 December, 2007?
Pundits have argued about names and reputations of Universities, and how these have bearing on graduates when it comes to employment and other opportunities. What is in a name? Who knows MUHAS, still struggling to get on its feet? In an article titled “Graduates’ Transition From Study to Employment: A Study of the Arts and Agriculture Graduates of University of Nigeria in the World of Work”, Grace Akudo Anyanwu begins… “Transition from school to work is a crucial issue to fresh graduates, even though career decision is a lifelong process. According to Krumboltz (1979), career is a continually changing activity influenced by different factors…”
She goes on to say… “Observation suggests that employment opportunities for graduates are not mainly a function of the employment system and its requirement but also of the quantitative structural skill linkages. It has been noted as well that in many countries, the views and the reputation of certain institutions and departments influence the employability of their students. Hence, some institutions of higher learning try to maintain higher competitive edge for their graduates by including different professional experiences during the course of study, (Brennan, Kogan and Teichler 1996).” In one of concluding remarks, Anyanywu says… “The respondents’ perception of the five most important criteria for being employed were in a descending order, field of study, the major area of study, the reputation of the university, personality of the respective graduate, and the class of pass (grades). In addition, formal post-employment training was very minimal; most of the graduates either did not have any training at all or trained on-the-job.”
We know the reputation of the faculty at MUHAS, it is excellent, inarguably the best in the country. But MUHAS is yet to score any mark. Should it be given the honor to confer degrees just a few months after establishment? Is that fair?
In its 10 December 2007 edition, The Citizen writes “…Before the transformation to Muhas, graduating students used to be awarded University of Dar es Salaam degree certificates but they will now be getting those with the new Muhas logo now. This, according to Prof. Ngassapa, should all be cosmetic since the institution that trained earlier students who were awarded UDSM degrees is still the same”. The article goes on to say “Professor Ngassapa believes MUHAS graduates will have no problem at all securing jobs because most of them will be employed by government. It would be highly unlikely, he says, for government not to recognise them when Muhas is a government institution.”
What is your opinion? How Worth is Your MUHAS Certificate?
