ICT is a key pillar in the twenty first century institutional management. And just like the evolution of the human race, today’s organisations have evolved with ICT being a pivotal propeller of this advancement. We as a university have been toe to toe with this global and necessary metamorphosis.

The fundamental objective of the Directorate of ICT at SEKU is to provide effective service delivery and address connectivity geared towards promoting innovation in education and transforming lives. We believe in a future full of challenges and opportunities where harnessing the power of information technology would empower academia in terms of information access thus promoting quality education. This we have continued to achieve and even beat through continual improvement of our ICT infrastructure and related Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

In the year 2017 for example, through KENET, the university embarked on a mega project to implement a 16.8 Km fiber optic link from Kwa Vonza through to Main Campus server room. The successfully completion and commissioning of this project on 29th November, 2017 has enabled a direct link of the university ICT infrastructure to the National Fiber Optic Backbone Infrastructure. Through this brave but worthwhile undertaking, we now have more reliable internet connectivity and improved internet speeds and by extension, improved service delivery within the university units that are ICT dependent.

Due to the critical role played by internet access, the University has also increased bandwidth capacity from 102 Mbps to 175 Mbps. We have also installed 40 wireless hotspots across our Campuses. This has not only de-congested our Computer laboratories across campuses but also increased access to online learning materials.

With the emerging trends in ICT, we are committed to continue providing the best possible technological experience to our students through keeping in pace with the global ICT environment. Students are now able to access ICT services and resources online. This includes access to academic records (results), self-reporting, unit registration, fee statement, online academic periodicals like journals, and books. In addition, an online complaints and corruption reporting system has also been commissioned and currently in use.

In collaboration with the National Bank of Kenya (NBK), the Directorate of ICT successfully managed to integrate the ERP system to the NBK System. Students are now receipted at the bank and their fee accounts updated real-time. Needless to say, this has improved significantly on fees collection, while at the same time improved the quality service delivery to our students. Over the same period, over 80% of our students were issued with smart cards for identification and banking services through the same partnership with National Bank.

In the latest Webometric rankings of the best Universities in Kenya, SEKU maintains top position according to the January 2018 editon. For the second year running, SEKU beat notable giants to take position eight overall in Kenya. This is a further indication of our commitment to quality service delivery and a learning environment that is grounded in intellectual and academic freedom, teamwork and quest for academic excellence.

As a part of our future plan geared towards improving service delivery, the Directorate of ICT will soon be rolling out a Customer Support System that will be used as a tool to address and track user support request. This will help serve better both internal and external customers by directing complaints, inquiries, and complements to the concerned factions.

We as a Directorate are committed to continue working in tandem with the management, staff and students in offering support on innovations as well as offering ICT support to various sections of the university to enable them deliver on their promise to our clients. We are also committed to continuous benchmarking with global best practice of ICT in Education.

The future can only be better!

Director ICT