Relief for university applicants as KUCCPS finally resolves portal hitches

The 2023 KCSE students seeking to apply for courses through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) online portal can finally complete the process without challenges.

This is after KUCCPS announced success in maintaining the technical issues affecting the eCitizen payment method and the website.

KUCCPS CEO Dr. Agnes Mercy Wahome, in a joint statement with eCitizen Services Director General Amb. Isaac Ochieng on Friday, said the portal had stabilized for the first time since it was opened in February.

“Following the challenges reported during application for placement to universities and colleges through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), a joint technical team has addressed the issue in relation to delays in payment,” read the statement.

“As a result of the interventions put in place by the team, which comprises KUCCPS and eCitizen officers, the application success rate has increased rapidly.”

The State officers said that on Friday alone, a record 22,307 students had successfully submitted their applications on the portal within 24 hours. 

So far, they added, 144,102 students out of the 199,695 seeking university slots have already applied.

“By the close of business today (March 1, 2024), 144,102 (72.2%) of the 199,695 students who attained a mean grade of C+ and above in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination had applied,” added the letter.

With KUCCPS targeting a whooping 173,178 students to apply for universities this year, it expressed confidence that with the stabilization of the portal, the remaining number will be able to beat the March 4, 2023 deadline.

“Based on the application behaviour of the 2022 KCSE candidates, KUCCPS targets 173,178 (86%) of the students with C+ above to apply for placement this year. So far, 83% of the targeted students with a mean grade of C+ and above in the 2023 KCSE examination have applied,” the statement noted.

“Following the stabilisation of the payment integration process, KUCCPS encourages all those who are yet to submit their course choices to do so before the deadline of Monday, March 4th 2024.” 

The announcement by the placement service comes after weeks of complaints by students and parents over technical failure which has forced an extension of the application deadline twice.