The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) Chief Executive Officer, Agnes Wahome, has outlined how the placement service determines the cut-off points and the key considerations when placing a learner.
Addressing education stakeholders during the 2nd Biennial University Funding Conference, held between 26 and 27 February, Wahome revealed that KUCCPS considers merit as the most important factor in student placement.
She went on to disclose that the placement service operates a computer system that receives results from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and ranks all students based on the programmes they have selected.
According to her, once the learners have been ranked, the last student admitted to a particular programme determines what is commonly referred to as the cut-off points.
“We consider merit as the most important aspect when we are placing students. We have developed a system within the institution, a computer system that once we get KNEC results, we rank all the students depending on the programmes they have selected,” Wahome stated.
She added, “Once the learners have been ranked, the last student who is ranked in that programme forms what people know as the cut-off point.”
However, Wahome noted that the placement service does not determine the cut-off points, emphasising that they are determined by the number of students who select a particular programme.
The KUCCPS CEO further disclosed that the placement service assigns students to over 400 institutions, including 70 universities, 90 Kenya Medical Training Colleges (KMTC), and more than 300 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions.
“In total, we are working with over 18 ministries. We also place students in the teacher training colleges. We have 35 teacher training colleges,” Wahome announced.
"We also place students in the teacher training colleges. We have 35 teacher training colleges. These are just the public ones. Still, there is a demand that we should place students in private teacher colleges and private TVET institutions," she added.
Wahome also noted that KUCCPS has a platform capable of serving as many institutions as needed, and it has been internally developed by Kenyan officers.
She revealed that the platform enables institutions to verify that the students they admit meet the minimum requirements set by the institutions.
