Strategy of Ardhi University

Ardhi University (ARU) is a public university established in 2007 under the Tanzania Universities Act of 2005 and Ardhi University Charter of 2007. Its mission is to be a leading centre of excellence in knowledge generation and dissemination responsive to the dynamics of the national, regional and global conditions. It also has a vision of becoming a leading civic centre of excellence in providing innovative and integrated learning, research and public services that advance sustainable development at national level and beyond, especially on land development.

Being a civic centre, ARU will be a university that is responsive to problems facing the community surrounding it. Currently, its operations are guided by the ARU Corporate Plan 2019 – 2029 (which you can consult here on the right) which emphasizes the need to conduct research that aims at solving societal problems in order to increase its relevance to the society. ARU is the only institution in East and Central Africa offering integrated training, research and public services in various disciplines related to the land and built environment under one roof.

ARU is unique in carrying out applied research whose outputs significantly contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 which aims at making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. In the next ten years, ARU envisages to take a leading position in East Africa in addressing critical societal challenges in cities such as traffic congestion, poor housing and services, land use conflicts resolution, low economic growth, sustainable local food systems, preservation of cultural heritage, gender mainstreaming and climate change. ARU will, therefore, embark on human resource capacity building, research, public outreach in the mentioned domains and make all its operations ICT-based. By 2030, ARU expects to have a highly skilled community of scientists with access to an improved research environment, to effectively communicate research outputs to engage, inform and support policy decision-making.

This IUC project focuses on SDG 11, but consciously takes into account synergies and conflicts between SDG 11 and the other SDGs (as presented in the figure on the right side). The IUC project is also built upon different National Policies and strategies such as the National Five Years Development Plan II (2016/17 – 2020/21) and is responsive to the ARU Research Agenda. The project will thus contribute to the common efforts of alleviating poverty and inequality among the Tanzania populace.