The 246,391 students who qualified for university admission in the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations will finally start applying for placement next week.
The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) Chief Executive Officer Agnes Mercy Wahome has told Nation that they will announce the exact date for opening the portal once the board approves the process.
“This week, we received the approved capacities from universities. They have declared capacities of about 300,000, so you can see that it’s more than the students who qualified for admission. We’ll place all qualified students who will apply,” Dr Wahome said.
While appearing before the Committee on Education of the National Assembly on Wednesday, the Cabinet Secretary for Education Julius Ogamba said the portal would be opened before the end of the month.
“There was no clear understanding regarding KUCCPS and university funding, especially given that the current funding model was shelved by a court decision. We agreed that by the end of this month, the portal should be open for university students. We are now working on what should happen next and addressing related issues,” Mr Ogamba told MPs.
Students who qualified for university admission have been in limbo over their fate as various issues cloud their placement and funding. This is after the High Court last December quashed the funding model introduced by the government in 2023 and it is not yet clear how the new students alongside those in their second and third year of study will be funded.
KUCCPS appealed but its attempt to have the ruling stayed to allow it place students into various programmes flopped.
Dr Wahome said that the applications portal will not display the cost of the academic programmes as has been over the last two years, in compliance with the court ruling.
The CEO declined to say how the students will be funded, stating that the mandate of KUCCPS to place qualified students does not extend to their funding. Students are funded through the Universities Fund which caters for their tuition as capitation.
“We can’t display the cost of the programmes. Placement and funding have been delinked,” she said.
Under the model, the cost of the academic programme (at market rates) would be displayed on the applications portal for students to see before applying. They would then apply for a scholarship which was awarded by UF and then a tuition loan through the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb). The board also gives student loans for upkeep.
Students who apply for placement in private universities qualify for student loans, but not for upkeep after the State stopped sponsoring learners who study in private universities.
In a letter dated January 15 2024 Mr Ogamba wrote to Dr Wahome instructing the KUCCPS not to place government-sponsored students in private universities. He referenced a directive by President William Ruto when he spoke at the fifth graduation ceremony of Scotts Christian University.
The programme to place government-sponsored students in private universities was started in 2016. The government still owes private universities over Sh45 billion in unremitted tuition fees for the students it placed in private institutions, some of whom have already graduated.
“This is a reiteration of the policy adopted following the roll-out of the student-centred funding model that delinked placement from funding, and under which students placed to public universities are eligible for both scholarships and loans,” reads the letter by Mr Ogamba.
Last year, President Ruto appointed a committee to review the funding model. Sources within government told Nation that although Mr Ogamba submitted the committee's to the President, he cannot act on it because of the pending court case.
The outlawed model appears to have pushed more students to ditch public universities and enrol in private universities as shown by the placement data released by the KUCCPS over the two years it was in operation.
