Prof. Ngaruko’s Biographical Profile
DVC-ARC
Prof. Deus Dominic Ngaruko is a Tanzanian Full Professor of Development Economics, holding PhD in Development Economics from Imperial College London, University of London (2008) prior to which he had MSc Agricultural Economics from Sokoine University of Agriculture (2002) and BSc Agric Economics and Agribusiness from Makerere University (1997). To date, Prof. Ngaruko joined OUT in 1998 as examination officer and a year later (in 1999) he was recruited as Tutorial Assistant. He was promoted to Assistant Lecturer in 2002 and later as Lecturer in 2006 through publications. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012 and Associate Professor in 2015. Prof. Ngaruko has held several leadership positions in the University. He served as examinations officer from 1998-2000 and was appointed coordinator of Economics Courses from 2002-2004. He was founding Director of the Directorate of Examinations Syndicate (now Directorate of Teaching, Learning and Examinations Services) from 2008-2012 after which he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, a positioned he held until 2016. Currently, Prof. Ngaruko is serving his second term of office as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academics, Research and Consultancy a position he has held since 2016.
Prof. Ngaruko has worked with The Open University of Tanzania for the past 25 years in various leadership posi-tions. He joined The Open University of Tanzania when it was at its infancy stages. He has therefore, lived and ex-perienced all the 3 distinct evolutionary phases of Univer-sity; i.e. Establishment Phase (1992-2004), Development Phase (2005-2015) and now Consolidation Phase (2016 to-date). Prof. Ngaruko has not only lived the history of the University but also of the Open and Distance Learning in Higher Education in Tanzania, Africa and beyond. Prof. Ngaruko considers himself as one the very few experi-enced experts in Open and Distance Education especially in Higher Education in the Country.
Prof. Ngaruko has had over 20 years of teaching, research and consultancy experience in the areas of applied theo-retical economics in extractive sectors mainly agriculture, agribusiness, tourism and natural resources. Throughout
his academic carrier, Prof. Ngaruko has developed strong expertise in pro-poor policy and livelihood analysis, tourism sector development, environmental and natural resources assessment, agribusiness value chain analysis, project M&E and community economic development. Prof. Ngaru-ko has published three books and two more books are at their final stages of being published. Prof. Ngaruko has published over 60 research articles in peer reviewed journals. Prof. Ngaruko has immense postgraduate su-pervision experience with an output of 24 PhD graduates and over 100 master degree candidates in which he su-pervised as main supervisor. Prof. Ngaruko teaches several courses in the Department of Economics and Community Economic Development.
Prof. Ngaruko has conducted several research and con-sultancy assignments as lead consultant or principle in-vestigator for the government as well as private sector.Recent notable consultancy that Prof. Ngaruko has un-dertaken as lead consultant is The 2021 Domestic and Outbound Tourism Survey and Computing the Contribu-tion of Tourism Sector to the National Economy commis-sioned by the Government through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. Prof. Ngaruko is one of the four team members of the technical committee appointed by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) to under-take the review of the Guidelines and Minimum Standards for University Education in Tanzania that led to the publica-tion of the 3rd edition of the Handbook for Standards and Guidelines for University Education in Tanzania in 2019.Presently, Prof. Ngaruko is Institutional Coordinator of the 5-year Project titled Higher Education for Economic Trans-formation funded by World Bank through the Ministry of Education Science and Technology.
Prof. Ngaruko has been a member of Senate at the Open University of Tanzania since 2008 in various leadership capacities. Prof. Ngaruko, as DVC ARC chairs four Senate Sub committees (i.e. undergraduate Studies Committee, Postgraduate Studies Committee, Research Publications and Innovations Committee and Consultancy Steering Committee). He is a member of different professional as-associations namely: Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA), Agricultural Economics Society of Tanzania (AGREST), African Council for Distance Educa-tion (ACDE) and Distance Education Association of Tanzania (DEATA). He is also served as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Tanzania Evaluation Association (2018-2022) and also a Board member of Canara Bank (Tanzania) Limited.