Impact of Higher Learning Institutions Expansion on The
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Library of Open University of Tanzania IMPACT OF HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS EXPANSION ON THE ADEQUACY OF NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE OF ICT PLANNING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA AHMED SALIM A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF TANZANIA 2016 ii CERTIFICATION The undersigned certifies that he has read and hereby recommends for acceptance by the Open University of Tanzania a dissertation entitled “Impact of Higher Learning Institutions Expansion on the Adequacy of Network Infrastructure in Developing Countries: A Case of ICT Planning at the University of Dodoma” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Project Management (MPM) of the Open University of Tanzania. .................................................……… Dr. Cosmas B.M. Haule Supervisor ............................................................ Date iii COPYRIGHT No part of this dissertation maybe submitted or reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the author or The Open University of Tanzania in that behalf. iv DECLARATION I, Ahmed Salim, do hereby declare that this dissertation is my own original work and that it has not been presented and will not be presented to any university for similar or any other degree award. ………………………………………… Signature ………………………………………… Date v COPYRIGHT No part of the dissertation may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the author or the Open University of Tanzania in that behalf. vi DEDICATION This research is dedicated to my father Salim Zagar and Mother Furaha Mwaipaya for their constant love, encouragement, endless support and wisdom towards my academic excellence. These are things I will never be able to repay. God Bless You. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my sincere gratitude to almighty God for care and health He offered to me in completion of this work and living as a whole. Also I dedicate my thanks to all individuals and institutions that in one way or another contributed to the successful completion of this work. First and for most, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. Cosmas B.M. Haule , who guided me in all phases of this study. His encouragement, constructive criticisms and patience are highly appreciated. I greatly acknowledge the financial and moral support offered to me by my family especially my dear mother Furaha Mwaipaya, father Salim Zagar, other family members and my classmate for the courage he/she gave to me during the whole process. Finally, I acknowledge all respondents (people) who played a big role in data collection. viii ABSTRACT The study was conducted at the University of Dodoma in 2014 with the aim of investigating the expansion of Higher learning institution and the adequacy of network infrastructure a case of ICT planning at the Dodoma University. A total of 183 respondents (156 students, 17 IT personnel and 10 planners from the whole university) were interviewed using a case study design. Observation and documentary review guides were used to obtain information that could not be obtained by use of self administered questionnaire and the interview guide. The results reveal that the expansion of university affect network infrastructure and the running costs of the ICT department. The study found out that the stated network infrastructure development objectives were not met as expected. This was mostly caused by the fact that most of the stakeholders were not aware on the whole process of infrustructure planning and university expansion. For instance most IT staffs were not fully invloved to play their part and give expartism on the ICT infrustructure planning results into skipping most of the required inputs from initial stage. On the process from initial infrustrure planning, there was a need to involve all the stakeholders, since most problems mentioned above were the results of some stakeholders being not invloved on planning, designing and decision making. On the other hand, the government should play its part by providing the required budget submitted to them from this higher learning institutions, increasing and maintaining this, will ratify the situation or condition and improve more. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION ..................................................................................................... ii COPYRIGHT ............................................................................................................ iii DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ........................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xiii LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................ xiv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. xv CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background to the Problem .............................................................................. 1 1.3 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................. 4 1.4 Research Objectives ......................................................................................... 5 1.4.1 General Objective ............................................................................................. 5 1.4.2 Specific Objectives ........................................................................................... 5 1.5 Research Questions .......................................................................................... 6 1.6 Significance of the Study ................................................................................. 6 1.7 Scope of the Study ............................................................................................ 7 x 1.8 Limitations of the Study ................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................... 9 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 9 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Nature of Network Infrastructure Development .............................................. 9 2.2.1 ICT Policies in Institutions of Higher Learning ............................................. 11 2.3 Status of the Network Infrasturcture ............................................................ 12 2.4 Theoretical Fframeworks on ICT ................................................................... 14 2.4.1 IT Implementation Theory ............................................................................. 14 2.5 Manners in which Plans of ICT Infrastructure are Carried Out ..................... 15 2.5.1 Budget/ Cost of ICT Devices and Implementation ........................................ 15 2.5.2 Skills Development in ICT ............................................................................. 15 2.5.3 Technical Support ............................................................................................ 17 2.6 Feedback/Reporting Mechanisms in Institutions of Higher Education ......... 17 2.7 Knowledge Gaps ............................................................................................ 18 2.8 Conceptual Framework .................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................. 20 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 20 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Study Area ...................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Research Design ............................................................................................. 20 3.4 Sample Size and Sampling Procedures .......................................................... 21