Admission to public universities of nearly all students who scored C+ and above over the past two years has reduced the pool of learners available for parallel degrees and private universities.
A sharp drop in the number of students qualified to study for degrees has left Kenya’s universities with half of their capacities unused, raising fears of job losses and closure of some cash-strapped private universities.
Students set to join university later this year will occupy only 47.4 per cent of the capacity reserved for them in the existing 65 public and private institutions of higher learning, government data shows.
The universities can admit up to 132,686 freshmen, but only 62,851 leaners have been selected to join the facilities owing to poor performance in last year’s Form Four final exams.
This marks a departure from when universities, mostly public, were filled to capacity helped by admissions from the selection board and the privately sponsored students in State universities, commonly referred to as parallel degrees.
Admission to public universities of nearly all students who scored C+ and above over the past two years has reduced the pool of learners available for parallel degrees and private universities.
This has cut the cash flow of private institutions such as Catholic University and KeMU which have been struggling to remain afloat.
The admissions data indicates that newly established public universities struggled for students as most learners preferred established institutions.
Turkana University had only four admissions against space of 320, filling a paltry 1.2 per cent of its capacity, according to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
Bomet filled 3.8 per cent and Garissa University 6.9 per cent.
The government data shows that Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) leads in the number of students selected to study at the institution at 4,866, representing 82.9 per cent of its 5,868 capacity for freshmen. It is followed by Kenyatta University with 4,667 freshmen.
Only Riara filled its capacity for its degree programmes.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
