Be Patient, Oversees Students Told About Their Bursaries

 Tanzania Commission for Universities

STUDENTS studying abroad have been challenged to spend their money wisely, as the government struggles to ensure disbursement of their claims is timely done.

Executive Secretary of the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), Prof Sifueni Mchome, told the Daily News on Tuesday that overseas students should take consideration of the country's budgetary constraints before demanding timely disbursement of their various claims.

He was reacting to complaints by Tanzanian students studying in Germany under an exchange programme between the government and the German-based Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The students, pursuing three-year doctoral programmes, wrote to the 'Daily News' recently complaining that they had yet to receive their June to August stipend as stipulated in the agreement, making it hard for them to concentrate on studies.

"Despite financial difficulties the government is encountering from time to time, we have sent them their money up to June, this year. We are now arranging to disburse money for the next quarter," Prof Mchome said.

According to him, some strategies were now being devised to ensure the students did not face further financial problems, including a plan to channel their funds through the Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB).

With respect to the argument that the students were suffering in Germany, he said they had to live according to their means and not adopt the lifestyle of Germans. Besides dispatching their allowances, Prof Mchome said the government was also sending their salaries without failure, insisting that they needed to spend frugally in order to successfully complete their programmes.

He said the DAAD scholarship programme was the first one, adding that the government was also studying it in order to improve it by solving emerging challenges. About 40 students are pursuing scholarship programmes which end in the 2014-2015 financial year, with the government paying 80 per cent of the total cost while DAAD paid the remaining 20 per cent.