About 58,000 students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education last year are set to get admissions to public universities in the country. This has been made possible due to the lowering of entry requirements by the newly-established body responsible for admitting students to institutions of higher learning.
In an announcement published in local newspapers, it was established that admissions for both diploma and degree programmes will be carried out simultaneously. Admissions will be handled by a central agency known as Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service.
This is the first time such simultaneous admissions will be practiced. Previously, universities and colleges admitted students separately with universities using the Joint Admission Board (Jab), an informal body established by vice chancellors of public universities while colleges had different admission systems.
The newly constituted admission agency has also lowered university entry requirements to B- for female students and B for male students. Cut off points were also reduced to 58 and 60 respectively.
Candidates with a minimum overall grade of C- will be eligible to apply for diploma programmes.
The new agency will place the diploma students in Technical and Vocational Education training institutions — for the first time in the post Joint Admission Board era.
A total of 232,699 candidates obtained a mean grade of C- and above in last year’s KCSE. The total number of candidates was 449,216.
Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service chairman, Prof David Ndetei, said the objective of the new intake system was to allow many university qualifiers to get places, while ensuring efficiency and fairness.
Under the new admissions procedure, attempts will be made to ensure gender and regional equity. For instance, deliberate attempts will be made to ensure admission of more female students to technology-related disciplines which are currently male dominated. Similarly, efforts will be made to get more males join courses such as nursing at the diploma level, which usually attract more females.
Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service was established early this year in line with the provisions of University Education Act 2012. It takes over from JAB which did not have a legal mandate.
The Act has also provides for University Financing Board, which has not yet been established, but is intended to take charge of university funding, including determining fees and helping universities with fund raising.
Admission dates will be announced by the respective institutions. Candidates who attained the entry requirements can access their admission details from the Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service website,
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