Education

134,743 students who sat 2023 KCSE exam to join public universities

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu and Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service CEO Agnes Wahome at a past event. (Photo: KUCCPS)

By Lucy Mumbi | Tuesday, May 21, 2024

18,558 students will join private institutions and 7,834 others will join Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has released results for 2023 candidates who applied to join various institutions of higher learning.

Speaking during the release of the placement report on Tuesday, KUCCPS CEO Mercy Wahome said out of 201,133 candidates who scored a mean grade of C+ or above, 134,743 students have been placed to join public universities.

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Meanwhile, 18,558 students will join private institutions and 7,834 others will join Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.

Wahome noted that 153,301 candidates opted to pursue degree programmes while 11,991 students opted for diploma courses.

“85 per cent of 2023 KCSE candidates with C+ and above made applications where 76.2 per cent opted for degree courses while the rest opted for diploma,” she said.

Additionally, 19,653 students have been placed in various Kenya Medical Training Colleges (KMTC) and 9,529 in teacher training in primary.

Gender disparity

Wahome noted male applicants continue to dominate placement for degree programmes, sustaining a trend that has been observed since the beginning of the central placement system.

On the other hand, female students were the majority of those placed in TVET institutions, from the 2020/2021 cycle to the present.

The results also revealed that the Bachelor of Education course attracted the highest number of applicants.

"We also made some observations on the way the students applied. The Bachelor of Education course recorded among the highest applicants with over 30,000 students expressing interest to pursue education," Wahome said.

According to Wahome, placement is guided by the placement policy and processing procedure.

She noted that for the agency to place a student in an institution, it considers the applicant’s choices, merit (qualifications), and approved capacities.

“Affirmative action is applied for gender, persons with disabilities and marginalised regions,” she said.

The CEO also announced that students will be allowed to submit their transfer requests before July. She urged applicants to utilise the allocated time to make the revisions to allow a seamless transition.

"We will also give the students an opportunity to make their transfers and we will be opening the system from June 5, 2024. By July we are hopeful that the whole process will be over because there are students who report in August while others in September. We hope to have a seamless transition this year," Wahome said.