BSU Project – Page 2 – The State University Of Zanzibar

BUILDING STRONGER UNIVERSITIES

BSU4 Annual Meeting 2026 in Zanzibar, Strengthening Global Academic Ties

SUZA Hosts Zanzibar Circular Economy Workshop under BSU4

SUZA Boosts Research Excellence with Hands-On Grant Proposal Writing Workshop

Building Stronger Universities: SUZA Hosts Transformative Governance Training

SUZA, GULU, AND HARGEISA UNIVERSITIES OPEN NEW CHAPTER

The Building Stronger Universities (BSU) programme is a long-term partnership between the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) and the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). Since 2011, the collaboration has strengthened research capacity, postgraduate education, and institutional systems at SUZA.

Funded by: Danida (Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), BSU supports sustainable research and education aligned with national development priorities.

Focus Areas

Environmental Public Health (EPH)
Marine & Coastal Ecosystem Health (MaCES)

Programme Phases

Phase I (2011 – 2014): Foundation building and initial training
Phase II & III: Expanded research, curriculum development, and institutional strengthening
Phase IV (2023 – 2028): Sustainability, advanced postgraduate training, and research governance

Key Impact

Strengthened MSc & PhD programmes
Joint research projects and publications
Improved research management and grant systems
10-year milestone symposium celebrated in 2023

The BSU partnership continues to position SUZA as a research-driven university addressing Zanzibar’s development priorities.

Project Partners

Over time, the Global Health Section’s engagement within BSU has encompassed a wide range of roles and responsibilities, with a consistent focus on supporting the coordination and management of short-term assignments and fostering collaboration among diverse research and administrative teams. In the context of State University of Zanzibar, this engagement has significantly strengthened institutional capacity by enhancing interdisciplinary cooperation across faculties and departments, while also promoting active partnerships with universities in Denmark, Ghana, Tanzania, and more recently Ethiopia.

2011 – 2013, phase l: The Global Health Section hosted the Secretariat of the Platform on Human Health and held the lead position in the DK Steering Committee. South partners in this period included UG, KNUST, KCMUCo/NIMR, SUZA/ZCHS.

2013 – 2017, phase ll: With the shift in the overall organisation of BSU from platforms to individual partnerships and the introduction of South driven leadership, the Global Health Section (representing UCPH) became the DK co-lead of the BSU ll partnerships with SUZA and KNUST.

From 2013 – 2016, in parallel with the BSU ll programme, separate grants were provided for cross-cutting projects managed by the Global Health Section aimed at developing capacities in ‘E-Learning and Problem based Learning’ and ‘Knowledge Sharing, Research Dissemination and Communication’ across all BSU partner institutions in Tanzania, Zanzibar and Ghana.

2017 – 2022, phase lll: The Global Health Section has remained the DK co-lead of the overall BSU SUZA partnership and performs as co-lead of work package 3 on Health Delivery Systems in the BSU KNUST partnership between Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana and Aarhus University, Aalborg University and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Phase lll was originally planned to end in 2021 but has been extended until end of 2023 to make up for COVID 19 related delays.

2022 – 2024, SCCOPET: KCMUCo is the South lead, the Global Health Section representing UCPH is the North co-lead of the partnership also involving SUZA, JU, DTU, and INN

2023-2027, phase IV: The Global Health Section remains the DK co-lead of the BSU SUZA partnership. Faculty and staff from the Global Health Section also engages in the new collaboration 2023-2027 with University of Hargeisa (Somaliland) under the supervision of the DK co-lead at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, UCPH