Presbyterian University approved to operate again

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday announced the reinstatement of the letter of interim authority to the Presbyterian University of East Africa.

Speaking at PCEA St Andrew’s Church in Nairobi, the President said the government is satisfied with the progress made by the university to meet the required standards for the reinstatement of the letter of interim authority.

While handing over a copy of the letter to the institution's managers, the President urged its leadership to continue implementing all the recommendations made by the government saying that by doing so the university would become a centre of knowledge, science, innovation and research as was intended by its founders.

“Your commitment to establish the Presbyterian University of East Africa as a top notch institution of higher learning is a reflective of your enduring spirit, action to progress the training of our people. The Government of Kenya is cognisant of these efforts and commends you,” said Mr Kenyatta.

The Education ministry had revoked the license earlier in the year, after the institution failed to meet the required standards set by the Commission for University Education (CUE).

In a report to the then Education minister Fred Matiang'i dated January 22, CUE recommended that the letter of interim authority awarded to the university in 2007 be revoked.

The report said staff at the university have not been paid for the past two years and the institution has unpaid arrears on salaries and allowances amounting to Sh611 million.

“The university had defaulted on remittance of staff salaries, deduction to financial institutions, leading to some staff members being listed at credit reference bureau,” reads the report.

It says the university lacked adequate resources to meet its obligations given the deficit realised in the four years under review, including the 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015 and 2015/2015/2016 financial years.

The report added that at the School of Education, one academic leader did not have the requisite qualifications in the field of education and most of the staff records did not have copies of academic certificates.

“Salary structures were reported to be too high others too low. The employees lacked medical insurance despite the fact that it was provided for in terms and condition of service. It was established that there was a medical cover by Britam up to 2015,” says the report.

The university was found to run seven degree programmes and 27 non-degree programmes.

The report further said that in 2017/2018, 1,032 students were enrolled in degree programmes while 359 were studying in diploma, certificate and pre-university programmes.

The ratio of full-time staff (56) to part-time (33) academic staff members was found to be approximately 2:1 (1:6:1).

PUEA first admitted students in 2008 after it was issued with a letter of interim on August 10, 2007. It was yet to get a charter.