This paper examines the influence of Tanzania's higher education policy (HEP) context on promoting research within Tanzanian universities. It focuses both on the prescribed mission of universities and the way in which the government provides funding for the universities in the country. Data were obtained through document analysis and interviews with national higher education policy-makers, as well as senior university leaders and academic staff members sourced from four leading universities. The findings show that the Tanzanian higher education sector operates under a homogeneous university model, wherein each university is prescribed as a research university. Indeed, direct institutional allocation has remained a dominant method of funding universities in general, and research in particular, since Tanzania gained political independence in 1961. The paper, therefore, recommends a reform of the national HEP to bridge the gap between policy articulations and implementation on the ground.