Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba clarified on Thursday, February 27, that the government had not reintroduced a cut-off points policy for university admission.
CS Ogamba sought to clarify the policy change after reports surfaced, emphasising that the minimum admission requirement to university for the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) cohort remained C+.
“I want to make a clarification based on erroneous reporting in sections of the media that relate to the admission and funding of the 224 KCSE cohort. The number of students who scored C+ and above and are therefore eligible for admission to universities are a total of 246,391,” Ogamba stated.
“The government has not changed the policy of cut-off points for university admission. The cut-off still remains at C+ and therefore all the aforementioned students are eligible for university for admission,” he added.
Further, Ogamba corrected reports about the Ksh100 billion allocated to fund the 2024 cohort. The CS noted that this figure was the total cost for the four years the students would be in university.
“The Ministry has done a simulation on the amount of money that is required to fund this year’s cohort and that amount is approximately Ksh25 billion per year meaning that for the four years that the students will be in university, the amount will be about one hundred billion all factors remaining constant,” Ogamba expressed.
The C+ mean grade requirement has been the standard cut-off point to join public universities for quite a period of time.
This was after the Ministry of Education dropped it from the previous grade of B- of 58 points for females and B of 60 points for males.
At the same time, Ogamba announced that the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) would open the placement portal for the September 2025 university intake in March 2025.
"In keeping with the annual placement calendar, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) will open the placement portal for the September 2025 university intake in March 2025," Ogamba announced.
While making the announcement, Ogamba stated that the portal would be opened to allow students to apply for their preferred courses.
Even so, the portal has been open since January 2025 for the placement of applicants to the Kenya Medical Training College, Teacher Training Colleges, and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions, for the March and May 2025 intakes.
