KCSE results: 60,000 to miss university slots

More than 60,000 qualifiers of the 2008 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations will miss admission to public universities.

Education minister Sam Ongeri said 72,679 candidates attained a mean grade of C+ and above, the minimum a candidate requires to be eligible for university entry.

But since there are limited places in the public universities, the Joint Admissions Board has traditionally selected only about 10,000 each year. The number of last year’s qualifiers was about 10,000 less than in 2007.

Some 82,134 candidates who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 2007 scored C+ and above. Because of the large number of candidates who qualify, the board usually fixes a cut-off entry point.

Last year, the cut-off point was raised from a mean grade of B of 65 points to a B of 66 points for 2007 candidates. The maximum a candidate can score is an A of 84 points.

“All female candidates with a minimum aggregate grade B of 64 points were however admitted under the gender affirmative action policy criteria,” said Jab chairman Prof George Magoha.  

Since its introduction, public universities have been tied to admit students depending on the bed capacity and resources allocated to each. Most of those who miss out on university entry are usually advised to join middle level colleges and public universities.

Others join the public universities through the parallel degree courses.

The Education minister noted that although the country continued to witness improvement in performance, it was still facing challenges of access to public universities due to their limited capacity.

Expand enrolment

Recently, the government created new colleges and campuses in a bid to expand enrolment. These include Pwani University College and Kitui campus under Kenyatta university, Kabianga campus of Moi university, the Kenya Polytechnic University College and Kenya Science campus affiliated to the University of Nairobi.

Of those who will not find a place in public universities, some 10,000 are expected to join private universities while another 10,000 will join foreign ones.