University - Industry Linkage in Tanzania and Its Impact on Smes’ Development

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the level of interaction between Tanzanian universities and industry and to analyze the effectiveness of university-industry linkage in contributing to the development of industry and particularly of SMEs in Tanzania.  The study was carried out in 2007 to investigate the relationship between universities and industry using the University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture as cases, and using a sample of thirty five businesses in Tanzania located in Dar es Salaam. Officials of government ministries and agencies were interviewed and policy documents were reviewed to determine the influence of policies on university-industry linkage in Tanzania. The findings suggest that there was a thin linkage between Tanzanian universities and industry, particularly SMEs. Although several government and university policies were found to be in place promoting linkages between businesses and institutions of higher learning, whatever linkages were found to be in existence did not have strong footing and they did not have a strong on a strong impact on SMEs’ development.