{"title":"Five-dimensional model of institutional barriers to on-time master’s degree completion in Tanzanian public universities","authors":"Obeid Boazi Gwalupama , Musa Mpelwa , PENG Pai","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103395","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In Tanzanian public universities, 74 % of master’s students fail to complete their degrees within the scheduled 18–24 months, exacerbating national skills gaps, delaying workforce entry, and imposing financial and psychological burdens on students. Prior studies in sub-Saharan Africa focused on barriers to students and supervisors that hinder master's students from completing their degrees on time; however, institutional barriers specific to Tanzania’s master’s programs remain underexplored. This study aimed to explore institutional barriers and develop a model to analyse their collective impact on timely degree completion. The study employed an exploratory qualitative design, and data were generated from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 48 participants selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed through the lens of Tinto’s integration theory and Bean’s attrition frameworks. The analysis revealed nine institutional barriers, with two novel dimensions emerging: cultural complacency and financial precarity. These coalesced into a five-dimensional model illustrating how institutional structures interact to hinder the on-time completion: academic barriers, administrative inefficiencies, financial precarity, social isolation and Cultural complacency. Findings proposed a model demonstrating how cultural norms reinforce administrative bottlenecks, while financial neglect exacerbates supervisory disengagement. Actionable reforms are proposed to address these interdependencies, including decentralising administrative tasks, incentivising timely supervision, and fostering peer networks. The model also offers a scalable framework for sub-Saharan African universities facing similar resource constraints. Reframing delays as systemic failures rather than individual shortcomings, this study urges policymakers to prioritise holistic, context-sensitive strategies to enhance equity, efficiency, and graduate outcomes in resource-constrained higher education systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 103395"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Educational Development","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059325001932","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In Tanzanian public universities, 74 % of master’s students fail to complete their degrees within the scheduled 18–24 months, exacerbating national skills gaps, delaying workforce entry, and imposing financial and psychological burdens on students. Prior studies in sub-Saharan Africa focused on barriers to students and supervisors that hinder master's students from completing their degrees on time; however, institutional barriers specific to Tanzania’s master’s programs remain underexplored. This study aimed to explore institutional barriers and develop a model to analyse their collective impact on timely degree completion. The study employed an exploratory qualitative design, and data were generated from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 48 participants selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed through the lens of Tinto’s integration theory and Bean’s attrition frameworks. The analysis revealed nine institutional barriers, with two novel dimensions emerging: cultural complacency and financial precarity. These coalesced into a five-dimensional model illustrating how institutional structures interact to hinder the on-time completion: academic barriers, administrative inefficiencies, financial precarity, social isolation and Cultural complacency. Findings proposed a model demonstrating how cultural norms reinforce administrative bottlenecks, while financial neglect exacerbates supervisory disengagement. Actionable reforms are proposed to address these interdependencies, including decentralising administrative tasks, incentivising timely supervision, and fostering peer networks. The model also offers a scalable framework for sub-Saharan African universities facing similar resource constraints. Reframing delays as systemic failures rather than individual shortcomings, this study urges policymakers to prioritise holistic, context-sensitive strategies to enhance equity, efficiency, and graduate outcomes in resource-constrained higher education systems.
期刊介绍:
The purpose of the International Journal of Educational Development is to foster critical debate about the role that education plays in development. IJED seeks both to develop new theoretical insights into the education-development relationship and new understandings of the extent and nature of educational change in diverse settings. It stresses the importance of understanding the interplay of local, national, regional and global contexts and dynamics in shaping education and development. Orthodox notions of development as being about growth, industrialisation or poverty reduction are increasingly questioned. There are competing accounts that stress the human dimensions of development.