1.0. Introduction
1.1. Rationale for Students’ Accommodation Policy at Mzumbe University.
When
the former Institute of Development Management (IDM)
was
transformed
in
to Mzumbe University
(MU) in 2002, there was
no
a
ccommodation proble
m for students because population was only 1150.
The students were staying comfortably, two students in a room. However,
the students’ population
has
continued to grow
to 4,916 in 2012/13
academic year for the main campus alone. The stu
dents population at
Mbeya campus has likewise increased rapidly from 300 in 2005 to 1700
in 2012/13 academic year. This growth has resulted into students
accommodation problems since rate of enrollment does not tally with the
rate of expanding hostels at
both campuses.
To address the shortage of rooms and as short term measures, the
University converted some of the staff houses into students’ hostels and
added more beds in all hostel rooms. The University also adopted a
staggered semester system as well
as construction of one additional
hostel for female students. These measures have not completely solved
the problem since there is still a shortage of more than 2,000 beds at the
Main Campus and 1,300 at Mbeya Campus for 2012/13 academic year
.
The avail
able rooms in the hostels have been allocated using some
unwritten policy based on some inherited rules (from the era of IDM),
such as first come, saved first. However, this situation has been causing
complaints from a number of students and other key sta
keholders. In
order to address the
above anomalies, Directorate of Students Welfare in
collaboration with students’ representatives through MUSO have come
out with this Policy
1
to guide provision of students’ accommodation
services.
1.2 Situation Analysi
s of Students Accommodation at MU