2020 admissions leave 22,298 empty slots at varsities

Education Cabinet secretary George Magoha. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By Lynet Igadwah

Summary

• The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service data shows that the 68 public and private institutions admitted 122,831 students against available space for 145,129.
• This is, however, an improvement from the previous year when the institutions were left with 55,852 unfilled places.

Kenyan universities have been left with 22,298 unfilled places after candidates who sat the national entrance exams last year were selected for degree courses.

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service data shows that the 68 public and private institutions admitted 122,831 students against available space for 145,129.

This is, however, an improvement from the previous year when the institutions were left with 55,852 unfilled places.

Of the 689,007 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in 2019, 125,463 scored C+ — the minimum entry grade to university — and above.

Admission to public universities of nearly all students who scored C+ and above over the past four years has reduced the pool of learners available to private universities and parallel degree programmes in public universities.

This has hurt the universities’ cash flow, forcing them to shed jobs and freeze expansion plans.

“Following the successful completion of the placement process, 122,831 candidates have secured placement to degree courses in universities while 88,724 got placed in TVET institutions,” said Education Cabinet secretary George Magoha.

The admissions data shows several private institutions including Daystar, Kabarak, KCA, Riara Universities enrolled students to all available slots.

The Technical University of Kenya is the only public university that filled 100 percent of its slots. The institution got 1,667 students against a declared capacity of 1,662.