Students reject 21 university courses in the 2020/2021 KUCCPS admission

It has emerged that the 2019 KCSE candidates gave close to 20 university courses a wide berth during the just concluded 2020/2021 students’ selection process by the Kenya universities and Colleges Central Placement Service, KUCCPS. No single student selected these courses that have a total declared capacity of 940. The courses may have been distasteful to the prospective freshers as they are possibly unmarketable and with very low absorption rates in the job market.

Egerton university is the most hit after eight courses offered at the institution were rejected by the students. The 8 courses have a total declared capacity of 280. A total of 10 universities were affected (see table below).

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has since directed the Universities offering the rejected programmes to establish why they are not attractive and implement corrective measures.

In the 2019 KCSE examination, 689,007 Kenyan citizen candidates were successfully
examined. Of these, 125,463 attained mean grades of C+ and above, hence were eligible
for placement to university as Government-sponsored students. The remaining 563,544
were eligible for placement to TVET programmes at Diploma, Craft Certificate and Artisan
Certificate levels.

SEE ALSO;

• KUCCPS 2020/2021 admissions: JKUAT admits highest number of students: See full details per university
• 2020/2021 KUCCPS admission letters and lists for all universities
• KUCCPS 2020/ 2021 students’ placement, admission lists and letters; Complete details
• KUCCPS website, portals and online services: 2020/2021 courses and placements complete guide
• How to download 2020/2021 Admission letter to Mount Kenya University (MKU); 2020 KUCCPS Admission list pdf
• How to download 2020/2021 KUCCPS Student’s Admission letter to Zetech University; 2020 KUCCPS Admission list pdf download
• How to check KUCCPS 2020/2021 placement results and admission letters for 2019 KCSE candidates, all applicants
• KUCCPS student login portal (https://students.kuccps.net/) and user guide
• KUCCPS student app for course application and admission results

With regard to available capacities, universities declared 145,129 vacancies for Government sponsored students, while TVET Institutions declared 276,163.
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. Of those placed in TVET, 53,726 will be admitted to Diploma; 29,112 to Craft
Certificate and 5,886 to Artisan Certificate courses.

SOME STUDENTS OPT TO JOIN TVETs INSTEAD OF UNIVERSITIES

Data from the placement agency shows that 2,632 candidates who scored C+ and above in the 2019 KCSE examination and qualified for placement to Degree programmes opted for
Diploma courses in TVET institutions, and were placed appropriately. This number has been
growing over time. In 2019, the number was 1,269.

This year’s placement data indicates that of the 122,831 applicants placed to Degree
courses, 66,661 (54.27%) will join Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) programmes, which are critical for producing skilled workforce required for the
attainment of the “Big Four” Agenda. The remaining 56,170 (45.73%) have been placed to
Arts and Humanities.
Of the applicants placed to STEM, 42,267 (63.41%) are male while 24,394 (36.59%) are
female.