Nyegezi Social
Training Institute (NSTI) and SAUT
St. Augustine University of
Tanzania (SAUT), established in 1998, is the successor of the
Nyegezi Social Training Institute (NSTI), founded in 1960 as the Nyegezi Social Training Centre by the Catholic White Fathers (now
called the Missionaries of Africa), under the initiative of Bishop
Joseph Blomjous of the Mwanza Diocese.
The early Sixties were years characterised by the emergence of
independent African nations, including Tanzania, from colonial rule.
As the winds of change were sweeping across Africa south of the
Sahara, the White Fathers recognised that skills in communications,
community development, accounting, management and administration had
to be developed, in order to educate the personnel who would take
positions of leadership in the countries of East and Central Africa
that were gaining their independence.
The founder of the Nyegezi Social Training Institute envisioned a
training that would not only impart academic and professional skills
but also inculcate values of civic and social learning, such as the
acquisition of national identity, cultural norms, political growth,
and responsible citizenship.
The Nyegezi Social Training Institute was established with a view to
training indigenous manpower, regardless of race or creed, in
general management, and in professional skills such as rural social
development, journalism, accountancy, materials management, and
health administration.
When Bishop Joseph Blomjous retired in 1964, he handed over the
Institute to his successor, Bishop Renatus Butibubage, who in 1975
entrusted it to the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC). The
Tanzania Episcopal Conference guided and managed the Nyegezi Social
Training Institute in achieving its aim of manpower training; in
all, more than 2500 men and women graduated from the Institute for
service in the countries of East and Central Africa until the 1990s.
Since 1992 there was a move within the Tanzanian government to
liberalise the providing of social services, including higher
education. The changes in government policy coincided with a desire
among Church leaders to establish a Catholic university in Tanzania.
Relying on the Catholic Church’s long tradition in higher education,
the Bishops of Tanzania decided in 1996 that the time was ripe to
extend the Church’s service to university education. To give effect
to their decision, the Nyegezi Social Training Institute in Mwanza
was identified and was made the nucleus of the new Catholic
university, "St. Augustine University of Tanzania”(SAUT).
The Tanzania Episcopal Conference founded SAUT to embrace the ideals
of the Gospel message as it comes to the world through the Word of
God and through Catholic Tradition and the Teaching Church. Hence,
in matters of faith and morals the University acknowledges the
authority of Canon Law and the Apostolic Constitution “Ex Corde
Ecclesiae” for Catholic universities. At the same time, St.
Augustine University of Tanzania, having been established in
accordance with the laws of Tanzania, operates under the direction
of the Tanzania Commission of Universities (TCU) in accordance with
the provisions of the Universities Act No. 7 of 2005.
The University attracts students from Tanzania and elsewhere,
particularly the countries of East and Central Africa: Kenya,
Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Malawi and Zambia.
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