PTC was founded in 1961, and established in 1965 as the first degree offering regional educational institution in the Pacific, offering a Bachelor since 1966, its first Masters programme in 1987, and its Doctoral degree in 2004. In 2010 the PTC Council approved the resolution to move the College to University. The University transition only started in 2019. Since then, we didn’t look back. Regionally and internationally renowned and known as PTC, it will become the regional “Pasifika Communities University” (PCU), with its vision popularly known as “Whole of Life”, with a communities-based learning approach. The University has 3 schools and 5 Centres and Institutes. The School of Theology and Ecumenism (SOTE), the School of Ecology and Resilience Development (SERD), and the School of Pasifika Philosophies, Education, and Sciences (SPPES). Our institutes include the Regional Institute for Leadership Development (RILED), the Institute for Climate Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK). Our centres are the, Centre for Gender and Social Justice, Centre of Research for New Pasifika Consciousness (CERNPAC), and Mission and Interfaith Centre (MAIC). We have existed for 60 years as the only regional ecumenical educational institution of the Pacific churches, providing leaders and prophets of justice for the Pasifika region. This is not just another University. We have been decolonising and transforming education and development from a Pasifika indigenous perspective. We are developing a Home of ‘Whole of Life’ education, an education that is relational, integrated, and holistic, that does not put peoples, cultures, faith, and identities into divisive and eliminative boxes and binaries. We are returning education to the communities, learning with the land, ocean, skies, and multiple relationships in mind. We are providing a transformative justice-driven educational platform and agent of change grounded again in our Pasifika faith and cultural values and spiritualities once removed by secularised education. PTC/PCU is already at the forefront leading a revolution regionally and globally in terms of providing new foundations for development grounded in our Pasifika indigenous ‘Whole of Life’ philosophies, theologies, ethics, and spiritualities.
We are proud to announce, after full approval of the Council and Executive board and the Higher Education Commission of Fiji, the endorsements of many partners and the prayers of the Pasifika Household of God, we will officially launch the PCU from the 28th April to the 1 May. More will come soon in terms of programmes leading up to this historical event. You are all invited to celebrate with us this historical milestone after 60 years of existence as a regional educational institution.
