New agency selects 90,000 for degree and diploma courses

Some 90,000 candidates who sat the Form Four examination last year will in two weeks know the universities or colleges they have been selected to join. 

And, in an unprecedented move, 32,000 of the candidates will be picked for diploma courses while the remaining 58,000 will be offered places to undertake degree courses, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has told the Sunday Nation.

This is the first time that students will be admitted to middle-level colleges through the newly created placement body. The institutions include the much sought-after Kenya Medical Training Colleges, Diploma Teacher Training Colleges and the Kenya Technical Training College.

“Forty-eight colleges under the Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions will have students admitted through the new entity but more institutions will be included next year,” the organisation’s CEO, Mr John Muraguri, said.

Some 446,696 candidates sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination (KCSE) last year, of which 123,365 scored the minimum university entry qualification of C+ and above.

However, due to limited university slots, only students who attained a B plain of 60 points for male candidates and a B- of 58 points for female candidates were selected for a degree course.

As such, 33,365 candidates, who attained the university entry qualification have neither been selected for a degree or a diploma course.

Mr Muraguri said the new selection method is one of the first steps the body has taken to remove the opaqueness associated with university and college admissions that has in the past left many students and parents frustrated.

“A lot of emphasis has been given to the universities leaving the tertiary institutions to admit students from their localities or on the basis of who you know,” he said.
ONLINE SELECTION OPTION

The selection body, which became operational on March 10 to replace the Joint Admissions Board, adopted a fully electronic process that required students to open online accounts on its website and select their preferred courses and institutions electronically.

“We have also employed a fully automated selection process and we have tools that process and give the output automatically without human intervention,” Mr Muraguri said.

“Successful candidates will be notified via SMS using the contacts on their online accounts. We shall inform them to get in touch with the institutions that have selected them to collect their admission letters,” he added.

The results will be published on the KUCCPS website to give the students and parents an opportunity to verify and query them. Mr Muraguri said inclusion of tertiary institutions gave the students a wide range of options to select from unlike in the past when students were forced to pursue degree courses that are not competitive, increasing the number of unemployed graduates.

“Over 200 students who we see clearly qualify to join university did not choose any university in their selection, opting to do competitive diploma courses such as clinical medicine at KMTC or engineering courses. A few others wanted to go to Kagumo College and Kibabii College to do a diploma in education,” he said.

The biggest beneficiaries from this year’s selection, however, will be candidates with disabilities.

“Any student with hearing or visual disability and sat KCSE examination and got a C+ and they filled the disability form and had their head teacher write a recommendation letter will automatically get a university admission regardless of gender,” said Mr Muraguri. “Those with physical disabilities have been admitted at two points lower than their respective cut-off points,” he said.

Sixty-eight candidates have been admitted in this category. The previous year, male candidates had to score a B plain of 61 points and female candidates a B- of 59 points to qualify. Some 53,010 candidates were selected in 2012 and this year an additional 4,990 slots have been added.