A sizeable number of students now risk not joining universities after the recent discovery by the National Assembly Education Committee.
Following the discoveries, the committee has announced that the new admission letters to students should be sent by July 31.
On Tuesday, the committee which met officials from the Ministry of Education were informed that there were students who were not being placed at various universities.
This is due to limited slots in some universities that were not previously communicated or planned for by the relevant bodies leaving some students in limbo.
According to Parliament documents, some universities which had earlier indicated have enough slots for students only offered slots to half of the over 16,000 applicants.
The MPs gave the example of Kisii University where 16,464 applicants and only 7,772 students have secured slots. This raises the chances of them missing placement in higher institutions of learning.
MPs argued that Kisii University had been listed to have the majority of slots by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Services (KUCCPS) but did not have enough capacity to accommodate the said applicants.
"Legislators questioned the methodology used by KUCCPS in identifying Kisii University as having the highest capacity of 16,000 spaces available for students," read part of the Parliament's documents.
Additionally, another reason why some students risk not joining universities is the lack of being placed in the courses they each selected.
Per the officials led by Beatrice Muganda, the Principal Secretary for Higher Education and Research, 14,564 students applied to study Medicine but the approved capacity is 689.
She added that 656 of the students were placed based on their first choice, 30 were placed based on their second choice, 22 based on their third choice, 7 based on their fourth choice and 59 were placed based on affirmative action.
This placement may result in some students being placed to study different courses in institutions that lack the capacity as seen with Kisii Universities.
She emphasised that the placement was done based on merit and student choices.
"Documents scrutinised by the committee reveal that students are facing a situation where they might have to forgo their preferred course of study due to financial constraints," read the statement from Parliament.
On the recalling of admission letters, the MPs directed that the new letters should be sent in by July 31. The letters were recalled after anomalies arose in the amount being paid by students despite the new funding model taking shape.
The officials explained that the process of determining Household contributions will commence on June 15 when the funding portal opens.
"Communication on household contribution will be realised from July 2024," the PS told the MPs.
