Students to know their varsity placing next week

University admission details for the 70,000 students who scored C+ and above in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams will be released next week.

At the same time, the 325,511 students who scored grades C and D will also know what diploma and certificate courses they have been allocated.

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has assigned courses to all the students, and named the institutions where they will be admitted.

The Standard has established that the placement agency will meet on Monday to ratify the results, which will be released on Wednesday.

This means universities can admit the students as early as May, compared to previous years when students joined in September.

There were no cases of allocated courses to students who failed to secure the programmes of their choice during the revisions as has happened in previous years.

In a meeting early this year, the board said all the 2017 KCSE candidates who scored a minimum aggregate grade of C+ of 46 points would be eligible for placement in both public and private universities.

The board also said all candidates who scored a minimum mean grade of C– of 32 points were eligible to pursue diploma courses in tertiary institutions.

And that all candidates who scored a mean grade of D of 18 points and above would be eligible for placement in tertiary institutions to study craft certificate courses.

Data released by the Kenya National Examinations Council shows that 70,073 students scored C+ compared to 88,929 in 2016.

In addition, a total of 101,514 scored grade C- and C-plain while another 223,997 students scored D and D minus.

Preliminary data from KUCCPS shows that the total capacity of all the public universities and private universities is about 90,000.

More places

This means there are more places available than qualified students; some universities are set to receive fewer students.

Reports indicate that some programmes attracted a record low number of applicants this year.

The admission trends for the past three years show that medicine, pharmacy, engineering, architecture and economics remained the most preferred courses by the best performing candidates.

Reports also showed most students prefer to study in the traditional older institutions.