The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has attributed the delay in opening its portal for university course applications to an ongoing court case.
Appearing before Members of Parliament on Thursday, February 20, KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Agnes Wahome noted that the delay was also due to a court ruling that declared the new university funding model unconstitutional.
According to Wahome, the judgment delivered on December 20 by Justice Chacha Mwita, which suspended the new funding model, did not provide clear guidance on how to handle students, including those already placed in various courses.
To avert a funding crisis in higher education, Wahome revealed that the placement service had delayed opening its portal for university course applications until the matter is resolved.
“The judgement that was delivered by Justice Mwita on the 20th did not give a direction on how to treat students even those that we had placed two years ago and the direction moving forward when he said it was unconstitutional,” the KUCCPS CEO explained.
“Looking at where we have come from, we were trying to avert the funding crisis in the Higher education institutions,” she added.
Due to a lack of clarity in the ruling, Wahome informed the legislators that KUCCPS had since filed an application seeking the suspension of Justice Mwita’s judgement to allow it to proceed with its functions.
While the appeal was certified as urgent, the court is set to provide the way forward next week, a ruling that could end the prolonged delays in opening the course application portal.
“We have gone to court and filed a request that the court suspends or grant a stay of the execution of the judgement given on December 20,” Wahome stated.
“We are happy it was taken as an urgent matter, and we are awaiting a ruling next week. That will be able to give us a direction even as we open the portal.”
However, the KUCCPS CEO also clarified that the suspension of the new university funding did not in any way affect the course application for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) slots.
“We have considered students who are not going for university courses that is why we have the portal open for TVET and KMTC and it's going on as we wait for the direction for university," the KUCCPS boss said.
