diff --git a/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php b/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php
index 6bda8483c5e..8d60ff3c952 100644
--- a/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php
+++ b/admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php
@@ -50,12 +50,10 @@ list($options, $unrecognized) = cli_get_params(
     )
 );
 
-if (file_exists(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/phpunit/phpunit/composer.json')) {
-    // Composer packages present.
-    require_once(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/autoload.php');
-
-} else {
-    // Note: installation via PEAR is not supported any more.
+// Basic check to see if phpunit is installed.
+if (!file_exists(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/phpunit/phpunit/composer.json') ||
+        !file_exists(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/bin/phpunit') ||
+        !file_exists(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/autoload.php')) {
     phpunit_bootstrap_error(PHPUNIT_EXITCODE_PHPUNITMISSING);
 }
 
@@ -74,12 +72,13 @@ if ($options['run']) {
         }
     }
     $_SERVER['argv'] = array_values($_SERVER['argv']);
-    PHPUnit\TextUI\Command::main();
+    require(__DIR__ . '/../../../../vendor/bin/phpunit');
     exit(0);
 }
 
 define('PHPUNIT_UTIL', true);
 
+require(__DIR__.'/../../../../vendor/autoload.php');
 require(__DIR__ . '/../../../../lib/phpunit/bootstrap.php');
 
 // from now on this is a regular moodle CLI_SCRIPT