Students left in limbo as ruling stalls placement in universities

Six weeks after the release of the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, candidates who qualified for university admission remain in limbo as the course selection portal is yet to be opened.

On Thursday, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) attributed the delay to a High Court ruling that nullified the new funding model introduced in September 2023, terming it unconstitutional.

With no alternative system in place, the government is unsure how students will be financed.

KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer Mercy Wahome said that the government has appealed the decision of the High Court and the case will be coming up on February 24.

“In an effort to avert a crisis in higher education funding, we sought judicial intervention. We have filed an appeal requesting the court to suspend or stay the execution of the judgment,” Wahome explained.

She said that the agency remains hopeful that Monday’s ruling will provide clarity and allow the placement process to proceed smoothly.

“The university intake is scheduled for September, and we believe that once the ruling is issued, we will prepare accordingly to ensure students join in good time,” Wahome said.

However, a crisis could be in the making should the Court of Appeal fail to issue a stay order to the ruling as government tries to seek alternative options to finance the students.

This is even as time runs out on the application, selection, placement and admission exercise.

Students joining university under government sponsorship currently are admitted in September.

In the 2024 KCSE exams, some 246,391 students attained a mean grade of C+ and above, meeting the minimum university entry requirement out of the 962,512 candidates who sat the exam.

Among the top performers, 1,693 candidates scored an A (Plain), a significant increase from 1,216 in 2023.

Additionally, 7,743 candidates scored an A-, 19,150 achieved a B+, 43,120 attained a B (Plain), 75,347 scored a B- (Minus), and 99,338 received a C+ (Plus), which is the minimum university entry grade.

Typically, the Education Cabinet Secretary directs KUCCPS to commence the selection and placement exercise immediately after results are announced.

In the 2023 KCSE cycle, then Education CS Ezekiel Machogu instructed the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to hand over the results to KUCCPS promptly to allow placements to begin.

However, this year, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba did not direct KUCCPS to declared the available university slots and to start placement process.

Additionally, universities are required to submit the number of slots for various courses to provide insight into approved programs and available capacity.

“We submitted that information to the Commission for University Education (CUE), but KUCCPS to make it public,” said Prof Daniel Mugendi, chairman of the vice-chancellors’ committee.

The 2024 KCSE cohort would be the third group under the now-nullified funding model, which allocated financial support based on students’ financial need. A possible solution, according to experts, is reverting to the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model, which was previously used to allocate funds to universities.