SISA was established , in 1990,with the assistance of the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) and UNESCO to respond the urgent and growing need in Eastern and Southern Africa for high level manpower, who can research , design , implement ,operate and manage information systems and services at the local, national and regional levels. It aims at preparing, through its graduate as well as short term training programmes and refresher courses, students for careers in information field, and providing the much needed opportunity for professionals presently employed in Africa information organizations to enhance their professional skills and to gain additional knowledge in the information area.

The Master of Science in Information Science (M.Sc.I.S.)

The Master of Science in Information Science (M.Sc.I.S.) degree program, which was launched in 1990, was first revised substantially in 2002, with its total course work requirement from 33 to 27 credit hours. The revised (M.Sc.I.S.) program was also an outcome of a series assessment of the existing program by various bodies:

• A self study was, in 1997, made on the program by a committee constituted from among the School's faculty members. The committee submitted a program review, which included constructive comments and suggestions.
• A further assessment was, in the same year, made on the program by a peer review committee, which was appointed specially for the purpose by the President of AAU. This Committee, too, provided constructive comments and suggestions.
• An assessment meeting was conducted with the graduates from the program at the end each academic year from1997/98 to 1998/99.
• A daylong workshop, in which some of the major stakeholders participated, was conducted in the July 1999, which pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the program and a number of recommendations for improvement.
• Based on the comments and recommendations obtained from the aforementioned bodies, SISA produced a revised curriculum, which was then thoroughly deliberated upon by a second workshop of stakeholders in April 2000. The revised M.Sc.I.S. Degree program as adjusted to reflect the changes and recommendations made in the series of meetings/discussions appears below.