INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS AND GRADUATES IN UNIVER SITY CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT. CASE STUDY: UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA, COLLEGE OF INFORMATICS AND VIRTUAL EDUCATION, LOCATED IN DODOMA, TANZANIA. Despite the fact that universities in Tanzania have tried to add new degree programs due to the advancement in technology, still students from universities fail to fit the need of the growing industrial market. Proper curriculum development is a major factor that influences competency in students before and after graduating their university studies. The role of higher-level institutions is to produce well skilled professionals who can fit in the industrial market within various sectors, this can be achieved by having a strong and flexible curriculum approach so as to match along with the 4th industrial revolution. Inspite of the effort made by the universities, it is noted from one among our interviewee that extensive market survey is not performed before curriculum development, this would help to know what exactly the market demands from the incoming job seekers who are the students from the universities. The board committee does not include professional from at least each course as per respective field, as a result some of the degree programs seem to have better curriculums than other courses due to different effort performed by each department. Through the student’s government, Course evaluation concerning how the courses are taught, whether lecturers attend classes, and what should be improved are among the evaluation performed by students, but there is no feedback is given concerning the suggestions offered by students. Furthermore, Curriculum review takes at least three years for minimal changes which means for large changes it will take more time. Why do we insist on involvement of students and graduates in curriculum development? It is because of the gap that exists between the university and its students, here are some reasons for the necessity. Involvement of students and graduates who are the good interacts with the industry may give better opinions on curriculum development, this will make students fit in the industry market, often after the completion of their university studies. Since technology changes at a rapid pace, students and graduates being the earliest people to interact and use the new technologies hence, they can have a very crucial insight on how to teach and what to teach in order for them to meet the industrial market requirements. Involvement of students will shorten the time taken to perform curriculum reviews on minimal changes since students’ opinions will act as alerts to the curriculum board in charge. Through interaction of students from different universities will help students to be competent against other university students in the market, for example students from our internal university can interact with external university students from gaining new technologies hence evolution advancement and competency in the market. The above problem can be tackled through the following approaches, Curriculums should be more of practical oriented than theoretical, that is to say that a course taught theoretically in first semester should be taught practically in the second semester, for example when a student is taught python in semester one, it is of more use for that student to be taught the application of python in the next semester before shifting to another programming language. Thorough market survey should be performed by the board of committee responsible for developing the curriculum, by doing so the market needs can be familiarized earlier before curriculum development. This will shorten the amount of time it takes to make minimal curriculum changes due to high growth of technology. The board of committee responsible for curriculum development should contain experts from at least each course or field, this will provide a clear insight of what each course demands and how to fulfill the demands. Conclusively, our interviewees, also agree that the involvement of students might be of a greater help in developing a better curriculum, similarly experts in the industries might provide a better solution since they interact daily with the technology in the industry and they are the one who recruit students upon the completion of university studies. REFERENCES: ➢ A framework for investigating learner needs: Needs analysis extended to curriculum development. • • https://citeseerx.ist.psu.eduf http://www.ijessnet.com/uploades/volumes/1598722420.pdf ➢ Principles for University curriculum greening-an empirical case study from Tanzania • https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14676370110388 354/full/http;//www.emerald-library.com/ft ➢ The significance of context for curriculum development in engineering education: a case study across three African countries • https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03043797.2015.1056103 • https://scholar.google.com/
