The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has clarified its role in setting university course cutoff points.
Speaking during the release of the 2026 KUCCPS placement results on July 8, KUCCPS CEO Agnes Wahome said all academic programmes are grouped into different clusters, with cutoff points determined by the performance and number of students applying for each course.
She explained that while some universities had requested lower cutoff points for their programmes, KUCCPS does not set the cutoffs, which are determined by applicants’ competitiveness during the placement process.
“We have universities who have asked that we reduce their cutoffs, but we are not the ones who set the cutoffs. Students set the cutoffs by how they compete per programme,” Wahome said.
How Cutoff Points Work
According to Wahome, universities first declare the number of students they can admit for each programme, with the capacities approved by the Commission for University Education (CUE) and published on the KUCCPS placement system.
Applicants are then ranked based on a performance index derived from their cluster subject scores.
Students are placed in order of merit until the approved capacity for each programme is filled.
The score of the last student admitted to a particular programme at a university becomes that institution’s cutoff point for that year.
Using the Bachelor of Medicine programme as an example, KUCCPS noted that universities had a combined capacity of 702 students, yet more than 6,500 applicants sought admission.
Among them were 1,535 candidates who scored a mean grade of A and 3,323 who attained A- in the KCSE examination.
Also Read: KUCCPS Releases 2026 University Placement Results; How to Check
KUCCPS Clarifies Role After Universities Seek Lower Course Cutoff Points
The KUCCPS CEO said that when the number of applicants exceeds the available university capacity, students are ranked competitively to determine who secures placement.
She explained that, for programmes such as Bachelor of Medicine, applicants are assessed based on their weighted scores in the relevant cluster subjects, including Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and a language.
The ranking is based on individual performance against the national performance in those subjects.
Also Read: KUCCPS Explains How Students Are Selected for University Courses in Kenya
KUCCPS added that since universities have different admission capacities and attract varying numbers of applicants, cutoff points differ from one institution to another.
For instance, one university may admit its last medicine student with 46 cluster points like University of Nairobi (UoN), while another may fill its available slots at 45 cluster points.
Before placement, KUCCPS said it processed the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination data received from the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) as part of the placement process.
It also validated university programmes and their approved admission capacities with the Commission for University Education (CUE) before computing applicants’ weighted cluster points using the revised 2026 placement criteria.
Follow our WhatsApp Channel and X Account for real-time news updates.
