Concerns as over half of university qualifiers yet to apply for placement

It’s been three weeks since the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) opened the portal for students to apply for places in institutions of higher learning.

But prospective students have been slow on uptake of this service; out of a potential 246,000 students, only 104,000 have so far tendered their applications.

And with just one week to go to the closure of that portal, these numbers are worrying for the Ministry of Education officials.

Perhaps in a bid to remedy this apathy, Ministry of Education officials are traversing parts of the country and engaging students and their parents on the urgency and need to register within the set timelines.

Prof. John Oluoch, Director for Placement and Career Development at KUCCPS, said: “We have dispatched our officers from Nairobi across 47 counties to help us on registration…we are yet to hit half of the number but we remain hopeful with the remaining duration…all shall be well.”

“This year we worked on our infrastructure, everything is okay, and we just want to urge students to come out and register.”

In Kisii County, the officials had a chance to engage the stakeholders, with students getting answers to some of the issues that they had had troubles with during the registration period.

Students studying medicine at KMTC also used the opportunity to plead with the government to allow them to also benefit from the higher education funds to finance their studies.