Abstract:
Background: In 2012, the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) embarked on structured competency-based
curricula (CBC) for its programmes. Other health profession training institutions continued with their traditional way of teaching and
thus causing variability in the competencies of the graduates. We aimed to analyze the experiences of different stakeholders on the
implementation of CBC specifically on biomedical sciences by MUHAS to inform the development of harmonized competency-based
curricula in three health professional training institutions in Tanzania.
Methods: We adopted an exploratory case study to analyse the implementation of CBC in programmes of Medicine and Nursing
involving MUHAS graduates, immediate supervisors at the employment sites, faculty, and continuing students at MUHAS. Kiswahili
guides were used to conduct the in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). Qualitative content analysis was
adopted for analysis.
Results: From the 38 IDIs and 15 FGDs, four categories of human resources teaching and learning environment; curriculum content;
and support systems emerged. Human resources were attributed to the shortage of an adequate number of faculty and teaching skills
variation. The curriculum content category was linked to the redundancy of courses or topics, poor sequencing of some topics or
courses, and limited time for teaching some essential courses or topics. Training and practice area mismatch, accommodation to
students, teaching space, and library were the sub-categories linked to teaching and learning environment. Lastly, support systems
related to teaching methods and opportunities for improving teaching and learning were revealed.
Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the challenges and opportunities for the implementation of CBC. The solutions to the
revealed challenges are beyond the training institutions’ capacity. The latter call for multi-stakeholder engagement including those
from the public and private sectors in health, higher education and finance for common and sustainable solutions
