Education CS says KUCCPS portal to be opened by end month for new university applications
KUCCPS CEO Agnes Mercy Wahome said the agency had received details of available capacities from universities and was awaiting board approval to announce the exact date for opening the portal.
The government has announced that the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) will open its application portal before the end of the month, paving the way for over 200,000 students who qualified for university admission in the 2024 KCSE examinations to apply for placement.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba told the National Assembly Committee on Education on Wednesday that the placement process would commence soon despite ongoing funding uncertainties.
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"There was no clear understanding regarding KUCCPS and university funding, especially given that the current funding model was shaped by a court decision. We agreed to first open the KUCCPS portal. Additionally, we agreed that by the end of this month, the portals would be open for university students. We are now working on what should happen next and addressing related issues,"Ogamba told MPs.
KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer Agnes Mercy Wahome disclosed that the agency had received details of available capacities from universities and was awaiting board approval to announce the exact date for opening the portal.
"This week, we received the approved capacities from universities. They have declared capacities of about 300,000, so you can see that it's more than the students who qualified for admission. We'll place all students who qualified and who will apply for placement," Wahome told Nation.
However, students will not see the cost of academic programmes on the portal as has been the case for the past two years, in compliance with a High Court ruling that quashed the funding model introduced by the government in 2023.
"We can't display the cost of the programmes. Placement and funding have been delinked," Wahome said, clarifying that KUCCPS' mandate is limited to placement and does not extend to student funding.
Students uncertain
The ruling has left many students uncertain about how they will finance their education.
The Universities Fund (UF), which provides tuition capitation and the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb), which offers student loans, are yet to clarify how the new students, as well as those in their second and third years, will be funded under the new framework.
KUCCPS had appealed the court's decision, but its attempt to have the ruling stayed was unsuccessful. As a result, the placement body cannot include programme costs on the portal, disrupting the government’s student-centred funding model, which required applicants to view market-rate tuition fees before applying for scholarships and loans.
Meanwhile, government-sponsored students will no longer be placed in private universities.
In a letter dated January 15, 2024, Ogamba instructed KUCCPS not to place students in private universities, citing a directive from President William Ruto during the fifth graduation ceremony of Scotts Christian University.
"This is a reiteration of the policy adopted following the roll-out of the student-centred funding model that delinked placement from funding, and under which students placed to public universities are eligible for both scholarships and loans," Ogamba’s letter read.
The government still owes private universities more than Sh45 billion in unremitted tuition fees for students placed in these institutions since the programme began in 2016. Some of the affected students have already graduated, but the debt remains unsettled.
In response to the funding crisis, President Ruto last year appointed a committee to review the funding model. However, the recommendations are yet to be disclosed due to the pending court case.
The uncertainty surrounding funding appears to have contributed to a shift in student preference, with more learners opting for private universities, as reflected in placement data from the last two years when the scrapped funding model was in place.
As the KUCCPS portal prepares to open, thousands of students remain in limbo, awaiting clarity on how they will finance their education under the evolving policy framework.
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