The
entry points for popular courses in the public universities are likely to be
raised after many candidates scored high grades in the just-released Kenya
Certificate of Secondary Education examination results.
Some
3,073 candidates scored straight As in the exam, up from 2,722 in 2013, and
will be competing for the few places available in the top professional courses.
The
total number of those who scored A and A– was 14,841, compared to 12,481 the
previous year.
Kenya
Universities and Colleges Central Placement Services CEO John Muraguri on
Friday told theSaturday Nation that he expected an increase in the number of
students seeking to pursue competitive courses such as medicine, architecture,
law, actuarial science, information technology and commerce.
Since
such courses only admit few students, the requirements for the subject clusters
will have to go up.
For
example, admission to medicine requires an aggregate of 47 points in maths and
three sciences, meaning an average of three As and one A-, besides strong
grades in English and Kiswahili.
But
this may be raised to 48 points, which is the highest — four straight As.
Out
of the 450,000 students, who sat last year’s KCSE exam, 149,717 attained the
minimum university entry qualification of C+, compared to 123,365 in 2013.
Those
who scored B– and above were 102,289, which is more than the number the
universities can admit. Grade B and above had 63,974 candidates.
REVISE
SELECTIONS
On
average, just a third of qualifiers get admission through the placement board,
which replaced the Joint Admissions Board.
Mr
Muraguri said the placement board would start the selection in May and students
are expected to join the universities in September.
As
has been the practice, the students will be given a chance to revise their
course selections depending on how they performed, details of which will be
made available through the media and the board’s website.
In
the meantime, the universities are expected to furnish the placement board with
the vacancies they have for all the courses by April 15.
“We
will then offer the chances on merit. Top performers will definitely be given
priority for the courses they have chosen,” he said.
Mr
Muraguri said the available slots in the universities would determine the
number of students to be admitted.
For
example, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) last
year had only 50 slots for medicine, 50 for law and about 400 for engineering.
This
is a drop in the ocean, considering the high number of students who are bound
to apply for these in-demand courses.
“This
year we might be forced to admit more students by the government to accommodate
the high number who passed. This will put constraints on some of the most
important resources such as laboratories and classrooms,” said Prof David
Murage, the acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs at
JKUAT.
Mr
Muraguri could not, however, say if the government would increase the cut-off
for this year’s university placement.
“The
decision on whether to raise the cut-off will only be reached after analysing
the results and capacities of all universities,” he said.
But
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said most of those who passed
should enrol for diploma and certificate courses.
He
said that due to industrial growth, there were more openings for certificate
and diploma holders.
