Meeting to be held to discuss varsity admission

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

A meeting between officials of the universities placement board and the Ministry of Education tomorrow will decide whether the Government will sponsor students admitted to private universities.

Under the expanded mandate, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCSP) is expected to co-ordinate the placement of the ‘Government sponsored’ students to universities and colleges.

KUCCPS replaced the Joint Admission Board, (Jab), which only admitted qualified students to public universities.

But under the Universities Act 2012, the State is expected to sponsor all qualified candidates, who will be admitted by the service in both public and private universities or colleges.

The Standard learned yesterday that KUCCPS has set out a plan of action in a quest to exercise its mandate. It was, however, not clear whether the Government will pay for all the qualified students who will be admitted to private universities starting this year. “We are waiting for the guidelines from the Ministry of Education on interpretation of ‘Government sponsored’ students,” said John Muraguri, head of KUCCPS secretariat.

He added: “We also want to plan with the Government because we are supposed to take into account areas of study prioritised by the Government.” Muraguri was appointed this week to lead the secretariat team.

He said the team is yet to establish the extent of ‘Government sponsorship’ to private universities and whether it will start this year. “We ask students to be patient because a lot of issues are yet to be resolved. In the mean time, we are laying ground and putting up the new secretariat,” he said. KUCCPS chairman David Ndetei said the process of admitting students to universities and colleges shall be transparent and based on merit. 

 “We shall emphasise merit. We shall come up with a clear framework to ensure the process is transparent, objective and fair,” said Prof Ndetei.The officials, however, said they have a two-month window to make major strides. “Kenya National Examination Council requires two months to handle appeals from schools and candidates, then process final data before they sent it to us,” said Muraguri yesterday.

He added the new team is currently assembling data from existing universities and colleges and from various regulating agencies.