Agency announces date for review of degree choices

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has announced that the first revision of degree choices by individual candidates will run from January 30 to February 17.

The Chief Executive Officer John Muraguri said public and private universities could absorb all the 2016 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination candidates who attained the minimum entry mean grade of C+.

“All 2016 KCSE candidates who scored a minimum overall grade of C+ and above will be placed to pursue degree courses of their choice in public and private universities as government-sponsored students,” he said.

The agency’s boss went on: “Candidates who wish to pursue diploma courses will have an opportunity to apply during the first revision.”

He added that the minimum requirement for placement into diploma courses is C- (minus) and the application is open to Form Four candidates of 2016 and previous years.

At the same time, the Commission for University Education ruled out lowering the university entry grade to C-plain to accommodate more students.

Only 88,929 students scored C+ and above.

“We have received capacities from both public and private universities and submitted them to the Commission for University Education (CUE) as well as to technical and vocational training for validation,” Mr Muraguri said.

But he did not disclose the number, which will be done once the agencies are done with validation.

Last year, more than 74,000 students joined public universities while another 12,000 were sponsored by the government to study in private universities.

According to CUE, public and private universities combined can absorb more than 160,000 students a year.

Last year, Moi University admitted the most students among public universities (5,825), followed by Kenyatta University (5,598) and the University of Nairobi (5,374).

He cautioned Kenyans against false information circulating in social media about placement.