How universities shared out 2018 KCSE students

Kenyatta University students during a past registration process at the main campus in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Twelve universities have admitted 40 per cent of the candidates who sat last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam.

The 12 universities, out of 69 public and private universities that received Government-sponsored students, got 36,687 out of 89,486 candidates who secured placement to degree courses.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said he was pleased that 83,675 of the applicants (92.2 per cent) were placed based on their choices.

“This is testimony to the fact that Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) working jointly with schools are doing a fantastic job in streamlining the selection exercise to ensure that the placement is merit-based and aligned to students’ choices,” said Magoha when he released the 2019-2020 universities and colleges placement cycle results yesterday at Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology got the highest number at 5,901, followed by University of Nairobi with 5,432 and Kenyatta University with 5,289.

Maseno and Moi got 4,504 and 4,504 students respectively while Chuka received 3,132. 

Kirinyaga, Kabarak, Masinde Muliro, Kisii, Mount Kenya and Egerton universities got between 2,005 and 2,923 students.

Another 23 universities got between 1,028 and 1,959 students while 26 received between 156 and 958 students. Eight others got between 37 and 83 students.

A total of 660,204 candidates sat the KCSE examination in 2018 with 90,755 of them scoring a mean grade of C+ (plus) and above, making them eligible for placement to universities as government-sponsored students.

In terms of overall gender distribution in the degree programmes, 52,610 (59 per cent) of successful students were male while 36,876 (41 per cent) were female.

The CS observed that although the number of female students joining universities has been on the increase, statistics show a lot more needs to be done to ensure gender parity.

“I have also noted that 1,269 candidates who scored C+ and above and qualified for placement to degree programmes opted for diploma courses in technical, vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and have therefore been selected to their preferred programmes,” said Magoha.

He said this was an increase of 46.7 per cent from the 597 candidates who made a similar decision in the 2018-2019 cycle, an indication that the Government’s efforts to promote TVET were beginning to bear fruit.

Magoha said his ministry was keen on achieving 100 per cent transition from secondary to tertiary education, partly by increasing enrolment to TVET institutions.

“In the 2018 KCSE, 560,678 candidates qualified for admission to diploma, certificate and artisan certificate courses in our TVET institutions,” the CS said.

The CS said 98,393 students have been placed to various polytechnics and technical training institutions so far.

“While this is a marginal increase from the 94,907 placed to these TVET institutions last year, I am glad to note that there will be continuous placement of students to TVET institutions throughout the year. This will help to grow this number towards a target of 200,000 by the end of 2019,” said Magoha.

He said the ministry was paying keen attention to enrolment in Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics and Agriculture (Stem).

“Of the 89,486 students placed to degree programmes, 57,687 have been selected to Stem-related courses while 31,799 were placed to Art-related courses. This is a big step towards the realisation of the Big Four agenda and Vision 2030 aspirations,” the CS said.