News

By Special Correspondent, CMU

The University of Dar es Salaam Deputy Vice Chancellor-Planning, Finance and Administration (PFA), Prof. Bernadeta Killian has urged officials from different UDSM Units to communicate about the University activities proactively for effective and timely sharing of information to the public.

Prof. Killian offered this advice in her opening address during a one-day training, on website content preparation and management, to particular officials from various units of the University of Dar es Salaam who deal with information. The training was organized by the Communication and Marketing Unit and took place early this February, 2023 at UDSM.

“The approach of communicating to the public and providing information about the University should be based on proactive basis; the tendency of doing communication reactively shows inconsistency, and it is event-based, hence fails to publicize effectively the University’s core functions namely teaching, research and public service”, said Prof. Killian.

She insisted that the University understood that communication, particularly through website and other platforms, was a very vital component in ensuring the services offered by the University were well known and easily accessed by both local and international publics.

Prof. Killian pointed out that “communicating proactively will speed up the availability and accessibility of UDSM information to the public, and ensure such information reaches the appropriate audience widely and timely”.

She urged the trainees, who came from UDSM colleges, schools, institutes and directorates, to use the knowledge and skills acquired for improving their Units’ webpages by uploading content that addressed the audience needs and reached the wider public.

Preparing suitable content

Meanwhile, the Head of Communication and Marketing Unit, Dr. Dotto Kuhenga said the training was organized so as to equip particular officials from various UDSM Units in preparing suitable content, ways to upload such content, and managing and marketing it in attractive and competitive manner.

“This training is very important and timely for it will not only help in improving our Website and its content, but also capacitate these officials in aspects such as writing news or information for the website and crafting content in a market perspective and approach”, said Dr. Kuhenga.

He further said that the training comprised both theory and practical sessions, and the topics that were taught by related experts included, ‘the kind of website content UDSM needs’; ‘writing for the website – news and captions’; ‘writing content in a marketing/PR perspective’; and ‘online content uploading techniques’.

More than 80 UDSM officials participated in this training and commended the University for such an initiative to equip them with knowledge and skills on how to communicate relevant information effectively. They pledged to utilize such knowledge acquired for improving their respective Units’ platforms and content.