50,000 set to join public universities

More than 50,000 students who sat last year’s Form Four exam qualified for university places.

This is an increase of about 11,000 from the previous year in which 42,000 students got places in the institutions.

According to the data released yesterday by the Joint Admission Board, Moi University admitted the highest number from the lot, taking in 5,792 students followed by University of Nairobi with 5,496.

Kenyatta University follows with an intake of 5,491 students.

Egerton University has admitted 3,500, Maseno University 3,096 and Juja-based Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has taken in 2,151. Murang’a University College admitted the least number of candidates, with only 233 students getting places.

Kirinyaga University College admitted 322 students while Cooperative University College of Kenya took 382 students.

The increase in the number of students admitted to public universities is due to the establishment of satellite campuses.

Those selected attained a mean grade of at least 59 points. The cut-off point for male students was 61 or B plain, while students with disability who got a C+ and above were admitted regardless of the aggregate.

Under the board’s affirmative action criteria, 2,979 more female students were admitted plus 94 from arid areas who scored a C+ and above.

Available slots

Out of 437,782 candidates who sat the KSCE exam last year, only 53,135 qualified for available slots in public universities.

This will probably be the last time JAB will be tasked with admitting students to the universities.

Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service will be in charge of the higher education admissions if the University Act 2012 is implemented.

The mandate of the placement service will  be extended to include entry to parallel programmes and private universities.

Joint Admissions Board (JAB),has been an informal structure that only selects students for public universities

More than 390,000 missed university places because of the limited slots available as the institutions use bed-capacity as criteria for admitting students.

The reporting dates will be announced by respective universities and colleges.

Candidates who met the cut-off points can access their admission information from Joint Admissions Board website www.jab.uonbi.ac.ke.