Globalization, partly spurred by technological innovation such as artificial intelligence and robotics, continues to disrupt not only economic trajectories and business models, especially in the developed world, but also the knowledge and skill requirements for graduates entering the labor market. A growing corpus of literature on graduates’ employability has identified barriers to employment ranging from skills mismatch to a lack of soft skills. Although the literature on graduate employability is informative and illuminating, the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability in sub-Saharan Africa, and Tanzania in particular, has been less studied. Drawing on the broader employability literature, this article provides a comprehensive analysis of the best university practices in an effort to address the unemployment problems of university graduates in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania in particular. Four critical university best practices for fostering graduate employability are of interest—developing effective university—industry partnerships, aligning university education with a country’s development plans, regular university curriculum reviews, and strengthening quality assurance systems. Therefore, this article contributes to the higher education literature on the role of university practices in fostering graduate employability.

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This article examines the sources of funding for public university education in Tanzania. The article also examines the trends in Other Charges and Capital Development funding for selected public universities in Tanzania taking a leap of years from 2010/2011 to 2015/2016 and their implications for quality issues in the provision of higher education. Results indicate that the sources of financing for public universities in Tanzania are unreliable and unsustainable. The findings further show that government approval rates for budgetary requests from universities decreased over the 6 years. At the same time, the proportion of government-approved funds and those released to universities decreased during the period under review. This article argues that given the unreliability of sources of higher education funding and decreasing budget approval rate and disbursed funds, the fate of quality higher education in the Country is questionable should the trend continue. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn and recommendations made in light of the weaknesses identified and the review of the system of public university education funding in Tanzania.

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) in education are presented as capable of resolving several issues of education provision, financing, management, access and quality. This paper aimed at analyzing the impact of PPPs on access to and quality of higher education in Tanzania. Secondary research was used to gather data and critical review of the data and its analysis made. The focus of the paper was on higher education financing and on private higher education institutions. The findings indicated that PPPs have had a positive impact on increasing access to Tanzania higher education. However, although private universities and university colleges are many in number, enrolment has continued to be higher in public universities. It was further noted that an increase in higher learning institutions and subsequent increase in access to higher education has not meant an improvement in the quality of education provided by the institutions. As such, PPPs have had no significant impact on the improvement of quality of education. This is mainly accounted for by the number and qualifications held by academic members of staff in private universities, the infrastructure as well as the programmes they offer.

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Quality of teachers is recognized as one of the critical dimensions for promoting student learning in schools. However, in Tanzania there are several emerging issues that affect teacher education and teachers, and as a result affect students' learning. The existing corpus of literature indicates a death of studies on the systematic understanding of issues that affect teacher education in Tanzania, especially at a time when education across the world is encountering a number of challenges. Employing documentary review and interviews as data collection methods, this paper attempts to analyze the emerging issues affecting teacher education in Tanzania. Employing the Teacher Education Model for the 21st Century, the paper identified five major issues affecting teacher education namely; lack of specific policies for teacher education, lack of continuing professional development, lack of an autonomous teacher regulatory body, inadequate ICT and teacher education, and poor quality of candidates joining teacher education. Generally, the findings indicate that teacher education is not effectively planned in terms of policy imperatives to meet the contemporary professional demands for 21st century education in Tanzania, and beyond. Finally, conclusions and certain recommendations which take a futuristic perspective in preparing 21st century teachers are offered.

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