1. Historical background
The Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR) is a non-governmental, accredited higher learning institution owned by various Protestant churches in Rwanda, operating as a faith-based organization. It continues the efforts initiated by the churches through the School of Theology, known as the “École de Théologie de Butare (ETB),” which was established in 1970 by two Protestant churches: The Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR) and the Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda (UEBR). The school was founded to address the shortage of trained pastors within Protestant churches. Over time, other Protestant churches joined the original two founders. Today, the Protestant University of Rwanda is owned by 16 churches.
The ETB delivered a four-year program awarding a diploma
in Theology. In 1990, it was upgraded to the university level and became the
Faculty of Protestant Theology of Butare (Faculté de Théologie Protestante de
Butare, FTPB) with a four-year program awarding a Bachelor of Theology with
Honors. The faculty acquired official accreditation in 1993 by convention No
1552 of December 9, 1993 as a private higher learning institution. In the same
year, the convention No 1554/09.2/01/02 acknowledged the degrees delivered by
the institution.
During the 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda, the FTPB
was seriously affected and suffered the
loss of its Dean and four students. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the
founders of the institution in collaboration with their partners joined their
forces to help FTPB resume its activities in such a way that specific needs of
a recovering society could be met. In that perspective, a so-called Special
Program was launched in 1995 and lasted till 2001: three successive cohorts of
students were trained over two years each in contextual theology. The graduates
of this program were awarded a two-year Diploma in Protestant Theology. As of
1999, the FTPB resumed the classical four-year program of Hon. Bachelor’s
degree in Protestant Theology.
In 2010, two new faculties were opened.
These are the Faculty of Education (FED) and the Faculty of Development Studies
(FDS). Together with the Faculty of Theology, they formed the new institution
that were respectively accredited by the Ministerial Order no 09/11 of November
2009 as “Institut Protestant des Sciences Humaines de Butare (IPSHB)” and later
as the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PUR) through the
ministerial order n°29 of 19/07/2010. From its main campus in Huye district PUR
opened a second campus in 2014 in Karongi district. In 2016 the institution
applied for a new name, Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR), which was
granted by the Rwanda Governance Board on March 29, 2017, with certificate
number 102/RGB/RBO/2017, as published in the Official Gazette No. 19 of
08/05/2017. At the moment, PUR counts four faculties: Theology and Religious
Studies, Education, Development Studies; Architecture and Green Technologies.
Different programs are run in these faculties. Like any other Higher Learning
Institution, PUR intervenes in teaching and learning activities, research,
consultancy, and community outreach.