Brief Introduction:
Established in 1992, the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) is a public university offering open and distance education in Tanzania and the first higher education institution in East Africa to offer professional certificate, diploma and degree courses through open and distance education. The OUT operates through a network of about 30 Regional Centres; 10 Coordinating Centres, of which one is in Zanzibar and one in Pemba; two are in Kenya (Egerton and Njoro), one is in Rwanda (Kibungo), one in Namibia and one in Uganda.OUT has also 69 Study Centres spread throughout the United Republic of Tanzania. Currently, there are more than 35,500 students studying at home and abroad.
Cooperation with the OUC：
On 20 March 2017, a five-person delegation led by Yang Xiaotang, OUC vice president visited the Chinese embassy in Tanzania, at the invitation of Lyu Youqing, Chinese ambassador to Tanzania. They met with Lyu Youqing, the ambassador; Gao Wei, Cultural and Educational Counselor; Pinda honorary president of the Open University of Tanzania and former prime minister of Tanzania; and Prof. Bisanda, president of the OUT.
On 21 March 2017, the delegation visited the OUT, the delegation met and talked with the honorary president, the president of the OUT, the vice president, deans of various departments, heads of various administrative departments, and faculty of the university who have studied in China. Following the talks, both leaders signed a memorandum of understanding, clarifying that they would carry out practical cooperation and teaching staff exchanges, research cooperation, language learning, technical communication, and so on. The delegation also visited the headquarters of the Open University of Tanzania and Dar es Salaam regional centre. They visited the school library, computer room, video production room, teaching building, office building, laboratory, deaf students' classroom, etc. They communicated with the students at the university. The delegation accepted interviews from the local media and the visit was reported on by the Chinese embassy in Tanzania.
On 15th December 2017, a delegation led by Mizengo Pinda, the honorary president of the OUT, former prime minister of Tanzania, as well as Lyu Youqing, the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, visited the OUC. OUC president Yang Zhijian and vice president Yang Xiaotang met the delegation.
The delegation visited the OUC’s achievement exhibition themed “The OUC, Five Years On,” the cloud classrooms, library, and Chinese Language Centre. Delegates spoke highly of the results achieved by the OUC in the fields of integrating information technology and teaching, and promoting educational equity.
Leaders of both universities, and ambassador Lyu Youqing, held in-depth discussions and reached a common understanding. The OUC will implement the Chinese “Belt and Road” strategy and carry out a cooperation agreement with the OUT signed in March 2017, which emphasises jointly exploring new technical methods to advance comprehensive and in-depth cooperation between the two sides. The cooperation covers completing a case study on the OUT as one of the global open universities initiated by the OUC; establishing an OUC study centre at the Open University of Tanzania to carry out network-based Chinese language teaching integrating online and offline methods; and, exploring the possibilities of establishing two cloud classrooms at the OUT.
