What last year’s KCSE candidates need to know about University placement

Kenya: For the last one week, there has been a flurry of activities by last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates.

This is as they revise their university degrees’ options, following the announcement by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPC). The agency replaced the former universities Joint Admission Board (JAB).

For the first time, students joining middle-level colleges will be admitted centrally. This is likely to make them more competitive.

If done well, public confidence is likely to be enhanced as past admissions have been riddled with favouritism, among other malpractices — making them only accessible to the lucky few. The application is supposed to be done online and is only open for those who did their KCSE last year.

Female candidates

The minimum placement requirement to apply for bachelors degree is grade B plain of 60 points for boys and grade B- of 58 points for girls.

The minimum admission requirement to apply for a diploma is C. However, the minimum placement requirement to apply for bachelors degree for candidates who schooled for both their primary and secondary education in counties classified as marginalised areas is B- of 55 points. 

Candidates with disabilities will also receive preferential treatment.

Those with visual or hearing impairment with a mean grade of C+ and above can apply for a bachelors degree programme. Those with physical impairment with at least B- of 57 points will also be considered.

Based on last year’s admission criteria, medical related courses such as medicine and surgery are likely to attract top performers. Other areas in this field are pharmacy and dental surgery. These programmes require a person with ability to cope with pressure and has problem solving skills. Another attractive course is actuarial science. This is a discipline that involves application of mathematics and statistical procedures to assess risk in the insurance and financial sector. 

Among the most common engineering related courses are civil, electrical, mechanical and electronic. Others are mechanical and production and aeronautical programmes. They are mainly offered by University of Nairobi and JKUAT. Lately, economic and statistics programme is popular. This course involves analysis of financial and social situations using a range of statistical and economic tools and techniques.

 Students who succeed in this area must have a good grasp of numbers as they are a regular part of their work.

Computer studies

Other popular degree programmes are mainly in sciences like nursing, architecture, telecommunication and computer related studies.

Other courses that attract more applications include law, commerce and economics. Good career choice should be informed by ones ability, interest, skills and values.

Besides the grade, it is important to do a self-assessment to be able to make prudent decisions.

Cases abound of students going through degree programmes simply because they were the only ones available or were coerced to do so. They end up joining the list of the many workers who are not satisfied by what they do.

—kamuri@benchmarkpublishers.co.ke