Judge crushes bid to reopen Pentecostal university’s licence after deregistration ruling

A Malawian judge has thrown out a desperate legal bid by a Pentecostal university to challenge its own deregistration, ruling that officials acted lawfully in stripping the institution of its licence.

Pentecostal Life University and Great Dominion Holdings Limited had marched to the High Court in Lilongwe in a bid to launch judicial review proceedings, furiously claiming the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had trampled over their rights by denying them a fair hearing before pulling the plug on the university.

But their bid has now been dramatically rejected, with High Court Judge Howard Pemba delivering a damning verdict on 16 September 2026, ruling that the claimants had failed to back up their explosive allegations.

The judge found that the evidence overwhelmingly showed the NCHE’s decision to deregister the university had been procedurally sound, lawfully executed and entirely reasonable — dealing a crushing blow to the institution’s hopes of overturning the ruling through the courts.