History

The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) had no students outside the country during the early years of its establishment in 1992. The University operated locally with students from regions across the country. As time went on, the University extended its services in countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi, Namibia and others. International Students Office (ISO) was established as an effort to improve student’s services in foreign countries. The office was under the Directorate of Undergraduate Studies (DUGS) and acted as a contact point of all foreign students. Later on ISO was transformed and upgraded to a new Directorate which is the Directorate of Links and International Affairs (DLIA). Recently, the directorate was renamed in order to go in line with the government wishes to have manageable number of coordination points in its public institutions. On that reason, the Directorate is currently known as Directorate of Internationalization and Convocation (DICU); mandated to take care of all activities which were under ISO and DLIA (as elaborated above) with additional portfolios of dealing with Alumni and Convocation matters. The Directorate is currently under the leadership of Dr. Maulid J. Maulid. For the purpose of serving its clients perfectly, the directorate has two departments known as International Students headed by Dr. Flora Kiwonde while the department of Links, Alumni and convocation is headed by Dr. Maulana Ayoub Ali.