The Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation is re-organizing into a ‘College’

Sokoine University of Agriculture is currently undergoing a restructuring process in accordance with the Proposal for restructuring the management system and organisational structure of SUA As approved by the Council at its 133rd meeting held on 27th march 2014. Restructuring is being undertaken to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and visibility of SUA. This is in line with the Corporate Strategic Plan (CSP) 2011 to 2020, whereby one of the objectives to be achieved is to improve efficiency of the management system to address academic, administrative and societal issues. Strategically the university aims to;

1. Restructure Departments/Faculties/Institutes/Directorates and Centres to improve accountability, efficiency and competitiveness, and

2. ii) Improve procedure for appointment of senior officers to allow more dynamic use of talent and human resources.

The Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation is now to preparing its proposal for restructuring into a ‘Prospective Campus College’ with effect from 1st July 2016.

What are the expected outcome of this process?

The expected outcome of restructuring is the creation of academic and administrative organizational entities that will function more effectively and more efficiently as envisaged in the CSP.  Specifically, it is expected that the faculty shall be:

1. fully connected to the university’s agreed vision, mission and strategic objectives;

2. sufficiently independent and flexible to respond to new opportunities but remain focused on the overall institutional aims;

3. endowed with a critical mass of academic staff with the required coherence across a range of disciplines in ways that maximize opportunity for interdisciplinary research and education including training and outreach;

4. of a sufficient size to provide financial resilience, and achieve economies of scale and scope in education/training, research, outreach and administration;

5. able to attract and retain high quality, effective actors who are capable of managing a large academic unit, contributing to institutional planning, and implementation of  interdisciplinary research and education;,

6. decentralized in decision making in order to release quality time for top management to tackle issues of strategic importance to the University; and

7. characterized by a reduction of the span of control from the centre to the periphery to allow for individual professional growth, development, accountability and personal job satisfaction.  

The process

A team of 12 staff from different Departments and Units within the Faculty are currently preparing a proposal with inputs from staff, students and many other stakeholders. Should have an idea on what the Faculty should look life as a ‘College’ or what that Prospective college should do or offer and how, please do not hesitate to communicate your ideas to the Head, committee secretariat Dr. Ezekiel Mwakalukwa at ezedwa@gmail.com or the Dean at forestry@suanet.ac.tz.

Let’s go together. Remember, “Restructuring as applied to an organization means to organize differently. However, while restructuring involves re-organization, it also implies a transformation of the organization, particularly in terms of how things are done”.