The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) released a guide aimed at helping students improve their chances of securing their preferred courses.
However, many students have reported difficulties navigating the KUCCPS portal.
In response, KUCCPS issued a statement on Saturday, providing a breakdown of key terms used in the application process to make it easier for students to understand.
KUCCPS explained that to qualify for a particular degree program, a candidate must meet specific subject requirements known as “cluster subjects.”
A cluster subject refers to a set of four subjects that a student must have taken in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams to be considered for admission to a particular course.
For example, for health science programs, the required cluster subjects are Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Mathematics, and English or Kiswahili.
Additionally, KUCCPS outlined the concept of a “programme cluster,” which groups degree programs that require the same set of four subjects.
For instance, health sciences can be classified into one programme cluster.
A complete list of degree programme clusters is available on the KUCCPS Student Portal (students.kuccps.net) under the “Downloads” section.
The statement also clarified the concept of “cluster weight,” which ranks a student’s performance in the required subject cluster against all other candidates in the same year’s KCSE exams.
This ranking is based on the cluster subject requirements and the overall performance of the candidate.
Furthermore, KUCCPS explained the term “cut-off point,” which refers to the cluster weight of the last applicant placed in a program by merit.
Cut-off points are determined by the performance of applicants and the number of students a university can admit to each course.
During the processing of applications, applicants are ranked in descending order of their cluster weights, filling available slots until the last student is placed.
The cluster weight of this last student becomes the program’s cut-off point. KUCCPS emphasized that this process is automated, and the cut-off point cannot be predetermined.
KUCCPS also noted that the standard cut-off point for joining public universities has been a mean grade of C+ for some time.
This came after the Ministry of Education revised the previous cut-off from a B- (58 points for females and 60 points for males) to C+.
To qualify for various academic and training programs through KUCCPS, students must meet specific KCSE grade requirements. For degree programs, a minimum grade of C+ is needed.
For Level 4 (Artisan Certificate) courses, a minimum grade of E is required, while Level 5 (Craft Certificate) courses demand at least a D. For Level 6 (Diploma) programs, students must have at least a C-. Additionally, for teacher training, a C is the minimum grade for a Diploma in Primary Teacher Education, while a C+ is required for a Diploma in Secondary Teacher Education.
NTSA Urges Kenyans To Refrain From Sharing Images Of Fatal Kaplong-Litein Road Crash
