SOME of the abroad universities that participating in education exhibitions going on in Zanzibar have provided 100 percent scholarship to Tanzanian students who wish to study at those universities abroad.

This was said yesterday by the Managing Director of Global Education Link (GEL), Abdulmalick Mollel, when speaking to journalists about the ongoing exhibitions in the islands.

He was also speaking  about the exhibitions organized by GEL that will be held at the Johari Rotana hotel from  23rd  and 24th  in Dar es Salaam that will be attended by many foreign universities from India, China, Russia, Iran, England, Canada, Australia and other countries.

He said that at the exhibition that GEL has collaborated with the Ministry of Education in Zanzibar to organize, there are foreign colleges that have given 50 percent scholarships to students who want to study at those colleges and others have given 100 percent scholarship. 

"We have brought representatives of colleges from many countries and 20 colleges from Iran that have given 100 percent scholarships, everything is paid for and there are colleges where the student will be paid 50 percent scholarship  so if a student comes to this exhibition and chooses the course, we will admit him here," he said. 

He said another benefit of the exhibition is the relationship between local and foreign universities as experience shows that a large percentage of foreign college graduates are employed as soon as they graduate. 

He said that students who graduate from local colleges often start struggling to find jobs in various areas and complain about the difficulty of employment while the situation is different from foreign colleges graduates. 

"Foreign universities succeed in producing graduates who are employed as soon as they graduate, that  is why we have brought them together with local universities so that they can exchange knowledge. How do they prepare students? We are looking at whether it is a matter of curricula or good cooperation with employer’s institutions," he said 

“So what we have brought here is cooperation between these colleges, if there is a local university that is ready to cooperate with any foreign college, they will meet and exchange various skills and knowledge so that they can produce the best graduates," he said.

 He said the other is the opportunity to gain admission as some of them have been missing opportunities to join universities due to the lack of chances in some of the courses they are applying for, especially those in health and engineering. 

Mollel said that there are big number of students applying for courses in health and engineering  but the available places is very limited, so it is important to find places for them in various colleges abroad. 

"We have come with colleges here that allow students to be admitted here in the country and study  at a foreign college for several years and then returned to finish his education here in Tanzania, so we see this as an opportunity for our youth," he said.

In addition, he appealed to Zanzibar students and education stakeholders that the world has become like a village, so they should use external opportunities because even the costs of studies at foreign universities are comparable to those of local studies. 

"Tanzanians should take advantage of university scholarship opportunities, they should not underestimate them. We have a tendency to underestimate them because many students are afraid to fill in forms with a lot of information required, but we have an office here in Zanzibar, so we will translate the information for them," he added 

"You can find one scholarship form that takes up to 13 pages so for a student who apply for the first time it become very difficult, they give up but since we are here, we are here to guide them and we are here to open opportunities in the world so that students can study abroad," he said. 

He thanked the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar under the leadership of Dr. Hussein Mwinyi for showing his willingness to cooperate with Global Education Link to continue looking for opportunities for higher education abroad.