Steve Mkawale And Peter Mutai
18 August 2007
Nairobi — The cut off points for entry into Public Universities have been lowered.
The decision was made by the Joint Admissions Board (JAB).
JAB agreed to lower the entry points from 69, with aggregate B+ (plus) to 65, with aggregate B (plain), for the current intake.
The move will see the number of students joining the seven public universities rise from the 10,218 admitted in the 2006/2007 academic year, to 16,134.
The figure will translate to a 50 per cent increase in the number of students to be admitted to public universities.
During its first meeting for the 2007/2008 admissions session at Egerton University on Friday, JAB strongly recommended that the Ministry of Education increases its funding to public institutions of higher learning to enable them expand their capacities.
In a statement read by JAB chairman, Prof Richard Mibey of Moi University, the group said it was necessary for the ministry to support the extra admissions by expanding learning and accommodation facilities.
The increase in the number of students to join the universities would also have a serious financial implication on Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) allocations.
In the 2007/2008 financial year, the Government allocated the Board Sh857million to cater for the 10,218 candidates.
This is the same amount the board received for the previous financial year.
Board Secretary, Mr Benjamin Cheboi, told the Saturday Standard that Helb would negotiate with the Government for more funding, following the increase of the number of students.
"We will use the available resources at the moment as the Government looks for ways of funding the shortfall," he said on telephone.
Past students who benefited from loan owe the board Sh6 billion. The board has threatened to blacklist the loan defaulters.
This year, Cheboi said, the board has recovered Sh1.03billion from beneficiaries. It had anticipated to collect Sh1.35billion.
JAB further agreed that all the 2006 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates who scored an aggregate B plain of 65 points and above be given an opportunity to revise their degree choices.
"This can be done at their respective provincial director of education offices from September 10 to 15 and the Jab offices at the University of Nairobi from September 17 to 29," said Mibey.
Learning and accommodation facilities in public universities have been over stretched, forcing the management to drastically cut down student intake.
Some of the universities have been forced to adopt tri-semester system to accommodate the extra number of students.
Egerton University will from next month revert to the traditional two-semester system after completing some of the stalled projects.
Vice-Chancellors who attended the JAB meeting were Prof Nick Wanjohi (Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology), Prof James Tuitoek (Egerton), and Prof George Magoha (University of Nairobi).
Professors B C Wangila of Masinde Muliro University, Olive Mugenda of Kenyatta University and Fredrick Onyango of Maseno University were represented in the meeting.
The concession of lowering the cut off aggregate B is being offered for the first time since 2003.
The cut off points for students who sat for the 2004 examinations was B+.
In that year, 47,000 candidates who sat for the examinations failed to secure admission at the six public universities although they had met the minimum requirements.
JAB announced that the institutions would only admit 10,632 of the 58,239 who qualified then.
In the past decade, admission for the regular programmes to public universities has remained constant at 10,000.
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