our roots

School of Science, Engineering and Health
comes of Age
By Martha Kiarie - Makara
Congratulations to the
graduating class of 2015.
“Hongera sana!” This is your
day. Special congratulations to
those graduating with Bachelor
of Science in Actuarial Science. This is
the pioneer class, the very first graduates
of Daystar in the field of Actuarial
science. We, from the School of Science,
Engineering and Health (SSEH) are very
proud of your achievement and wish you
all the best.
The School of Science, Engineering and
Health was set up with a clear goal,
“to become a centre for the training
and equipping technically competent
applied science, technology and health
practitioners with a distinctive Christian
perspective.” The School trains and
nurtures Christ-centered world class
scientists, technologists, actuaries, and
health practitioners prepared to offer
leadership and solutions to the current
regional and global problems. The School
of Science Engineering and Health of
Daystar offers training in the areas of
Applied Computer Science, Physics, and
Mathematics (Financial and Applied
statistics), Actuarial Science, Biomedical
Science and research, Environmental
health and Nursing Science. The School
also houses the Pre-University program
that helps students who score a plain
C grade at KSCE, to bridge into the
undergraduate programs offered at
Daystar University.
To prepare science graduates in line with
the market demands, the School carried
out a market survey on the demands for
science graduates in the various fields in
2001-2002. This report guides the school
in choosing what programs to develop
and mount in line with the market needs
in Kenya and the region.
The School has ultra-modern science and
technology laboratories and ICT centre in
Athi River campus. The University has also
mounted a BOP (Business Outsourcing
Process) centre at the Athi River Campus,
for use by Actuarial Science and Business
students. This is a centre where students
study the processes of business
outsourcing, risks and trends, online.
Also for the training and equipping of the
trainee nurses, the school has a wellequipped
skill laboratory at the Nairobi
campus.
The School of Science Engineering and
Health started 2015 on a high note,
after the accreditation of the Actuarial
Science and Biomedical Science majors,
by the Commission of University
Education. The programs have received
serious evaluation by CUE in terms of
their market appropriateness and the
university’s preparedness to mount
these courses. The university satisfied
all the requirements by the CUE, and
the department was given a go ahead
to teach the courses. The preparation
to mount these courses included
the equipping of the biological and
biochemistry laboratories, the research
lab and a BOP Centre for Actuarial Science
students and acquisition of textbooks,
e-books and relevant online journals for
the teaching of these and other science
majors.
The 2001-2002 market survey by the
School of science also indicated that
there was need for graduates in the area
of biomedical, engineering, nursing and
technology sciences. The school has
developed all these programs including
the Electrical and Electronic Engineering
program that is awaiting approval by the
Engineers Registration Board of Kenya
that regulates the training and registration
of engineers in Kenya.
Actuarial Science; the science of risk
management in business will prepare
graduates with competence and skills
for careers in insurance companies:
valuing financial contracts and investing
funds; consultancy: offering advice
to occupational pension funds and
employee benefit plans; government
service: supervising insurance companies
and advising on the national insurance;
general: stock exchange, industry,
commerce and universities among others.
The Bachelor of Science in Biomedical
18 • DaystarConnect 2015