GeoICT4e is grounded on the long-term and well-established cooperation between University of Turku (UTU) and the four Tanzanian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) (UDSM, ARU, SUA, SUZA). It focuses on expanding the teaching and learning impacts from the previous institutional cooperation together with three added partners: TURKU UAS and Novia UAS from Finland, and MoCU from Tanzania.

Today, we have grown to a large eight-university consortium that enables development and institutional delivery of innovative and scalable geospatial and ICT e-learning services for Tanzanian HEI students, and beyond. Since our consortium goals are targeting for substantially broader learning impacts than before, we work in close cooperation with the local innovation and entrepreneur ecosystem and government sector actors, and the World Bank -funded by Tanzania Resilience Academy. We participate local communities through citizen panels to our challenge campaigns and create public awareness for inclusive and informed decision-making in Tanzania.

About GeoICT4e

Background
Geospatial-ICT technologies, fueled by accessible digital solutions, are driving innovation in response to urbanization, environmental degradation, and humanitarian crises. As a result, there is a growing demand for experts with the skills to address these challenges and create impactful solutions in a multi-stakeholder environment.
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Multicompetence Learning (MCL)
The central vehicle for education transformation in GeoICT4e is the students’ multicompetence learning (MCL) process, which happens via co-creative challenge campaigns organized in close cooperation with the innovation ecosystem actors and problem owners. This methodology enables the HEIs to catalyze a change, which we identify as ‘socially innovative geospatial and ICT education transformation’.
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Competent teaching and research staff with up-to-date geospatial and ICT skills, capable of tackling socio-ecological challenges in Tanzania

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Improved teaching contents and methods as well as effectively used GIS/ICT research facilities

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Increased synergies and interdependence among partner universities, their stakeholders and societal uses of their skills and resources

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Diverse collaboration by the HEIs with the public, private and civil society actors: catalyzing GIS/ICT business ecosystem development and providing skilled graduates for the private sector.

The essential elements of our MCL approach

Problem domain skills in space and time

Students are solving real, complex problems of the surrounding society and thus they need to understand the root causes and consequences of the problems and their spatial and temporal dimensions.

Geospatial data and technology skills

Students need to obtain skills in collecting and using digital geospatial data and open-source Geo-ICT technologies in a novel manner. Digital data is a key asset for creating solutions to complex problems.

Entrepreneurial and innovation skills

Students’ abilities and professional confidence evolve in multi-stakeholder teams so that they know how to approach real-word challenges in a contextually clever manner, working for problem-owners towards innovative and influential solutions.

Climate, sustainability and resilience skills

Global change is creating uncertainty and unpredictability to our socio-ecological systems. Students need to have skills to design climate-smart and resource-efficient solutions for social, environmental and economic sustainability and improved resilience.

Universities
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Benefited Experts
Learning Programmes
Dr. Eeva Timonen-Kallio
Turku University of Applied Science
Prof. Niina Käyhkö
University of Turku
Dr. Abubakar Diwani Bakari
State University of Zanzibar
Dr. George Matto
Moshi Cooperative University
Dr. Ernest Mauya
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Romi Rancken
Novia University of Applied Science
Dr. Zakaria Ngereja
Ardhi University
Dr. Mercy Mbise
University of Dar es Salaam

About the HEI ICI Instrument

The Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) supports cooperation projects between higher education institutions in Finland and the developing world. The projects support the HEIs as they develop their subject-specific, methodological, educational and administrative capacity. The programme is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education.

Project partners and funders

Ardhi University Hosts Successful GeoICT4e Disseminatio...
By Dr. Zakaria Ngereja and Msilikale MsilangaArdhi University recently hosted the GeoICT4e Dissemination and Training of Trainers event on June 24th, 2024, ...
Tanzanian and Finnish Universities Explore Research and...
By Msilikale MsilangaA team of Tanzanian universities recently had the opportunity to attend an event organised by the University of Turku, where they prese...
Visit of EU Heads of Mission to Sokoine University of A...
By Ernest William Mauya, Msilikale Msilanga and Suzana MagobekoOn April 29, 2024, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) welcomed a delegation of the H...
Enhancing Timber Harvesting Planning with Centimeter Pr...
By Dr. Ernest Mauya and Msilikale MsilangaThe aim of GeoICT4e has been to enhance the management and teaching capacities of Tanzanian universities in the ar...