Students who sat the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations and who are expected to join universities and colleges in September will know the courses and universities they have been placed in within the next two weeks.
This is after the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) closed the third and final window for students to review their course choices. The placement service was forced to allow the students more time after thousands of them failed to apply despite having qualified.
Students were granted the chance to revise their courses on May 24 2021 in the first revision for placement to universities and colleges for sponsorship in artisan, certificate, diploma or degree courses of their choice.
From last week, KUCCPS has been working on the final phase of the selection exercise after which the results will be released. The students will be placed in public and private institutions and will have their education partially sponsored by the government.
“We are keen on concluding the process and releasing the outcome to all applicants by mid-August, 2021,” Dr Agnes Mercy Wahome, the KUCCPS chief executive officer revealed.
The third and final round was scheduled to close on July 17 2021 but the students were granted a week’s extension to allow them put in their applications.
A total of 4,359 candidates took advantage of the extension and revised their degree choices. According to Dr Wahome, over 90 percent of all candidates who qualified for degree courses have applied for placement.
During the second revision exercise, Dr Wahome observed that most students had not applied despite vigourous mobilisation by the agency.
“We have made a lot of effort to reach out to these students. Besides sending them messages, we have contacted them by email and phone calls directly and through the principals of their former schools to remind them to apply. While many responded and applied, some indicated that they had opted to join university under self-sponsorship, while others were seeking study opportunities abroad,” says Dr Wahome.
She said (few) students from Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, Isiolo, Turkana, Marsabit, West Pokot, Lamu and Kilifi counties had applied for tertiary education.
“We appeal to the leaders in the affected counties to encourage and mobilise their young people who have qualified for admission to universities and colleges to apply.”
In the 2020 KCSE examination, 142,540 Kenyan citizens obtained the minimum university entry grade of C+ plus or above, hence qualified for government sponsorship to university - 893 candidates scored a mean grade of A (plain), 6,420 candidates scored A-(minus), 14,427 scored B+, 38,194 had B- while a total of 57,999 candidates scored C+.
Students are to choose from 546 degree programmes offered in 38 public universities and their constituent colleges and 33 private universities. Some students also opt not to apply for degree programmes preferring to join technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions. Others prefer to join Strathmore and USIU-Africa universities, which do not participate in the KUCCPS placement.
The agency also targeted secondary school graduates with any mean grade from the year 2000 to 2020 for placement and government sponsorship to TVET institutions.
