A WORD FROM CHAIR PERSON

The Sokoine University of Agriculture Academic Staff Association (SUASA) was established in 1984 with the aim of mobilising members of academic staff to work together to accomplish the mission and vision of the University and to ensure that matters related to the general welfare of the academic members of staff at SUA are not compromised. We as SUASA do understand that the University is a centre where knowledge is searched for, produced, applied and disseminated.

As Nyerere, (1973:173), the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania in his book “Freedom and Development” urges,

“Thus our university, like all others worthy of the name, must provide the facilities and the opportunities for the highest intellectually enquiry. It must encourage and challenge its students to develop their powers of constructive thinking. It must encourage its academic staff to do original research and to play a full part in promoting intelligent discussion of issues of human concern. It must do all these things because they are part of being a university; they are part of its reason for existence”.

Our motto therefore has always been “To act with high level of integrity, and intelligibility in matters related to quality of knowledge produced at SUA and welfare of academic staff”.

SUASA is a team of highly professional and knowledgeable individuals, who, through their hard work, passion, dedication and perceptiveness, continuously propel the University forward. In that case, I believe that we as academic staff are charged with a great task of fulfilling our academic and social responsibility as a general incorporated association whose members are key stakeholders at our institution. SUASA will continue to advise the University management, SUA employees and the government about their responsibilities so as to improve the quality of education at SUA and Tanzania in general.

We members of SUASA will continue to work as hard as we possibly can, while competing with each other towards further professional development, with the view of producing the best graduates who can compete in the global job market. SUASA will continue to ensure that there is good communication between the University management and the academic staff for the betterment of our institution. Furthermore, SUASA will continue to cooperate with other Academic Staff Associations (ASAs) both at national and international levels.

Chairperson SUASA