A total of 293,869 students have secured placement to universities and other tertiary institutions for the 2026/2027 academic year, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has announced as the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) released this year’s placement results.

Speaking on Wednesday, July 8, during the release of the 2026 University Placement Results at the Edge Convention Centre in Nairobi, Ogamba said the placement exercise catered for students joining degree, diploma, certificate and artisan programmes across the country.

“This year, 980,535 students who sat the 2025 KCSE examination were given an opportunity to apply for placement to programmes and institutions of their choice. Of these, 270,508 attained the mean grade of C+ and above and therefore qualified for degree programmes, while the rest were eligible for placement to programmes offered by our national polytechnics, TVET colleges, KMTCs, TTCs, Kenya Utalii College and other tertiary institutions,” he said.

The CS said the Commission for University Education approved 327,157 vacancies across 43 public and 33 private universities for the 2026/2027 academic year, adding that public TVET institutions also have one million training slots available.

Ogamba noted that KUCCPS expanded its placement mandate this year by placing students into Kenya Utalii College for the first time.

“Indeed, for the first time we have placed students to the Kenya Utalii College. This also adds to the list of other specialised institutions where KUCCPS places students, including KMTC, the Kenya School of Law and the Morendat Institute of Oil and Gas National Polytechnic,” he said.

He revealed that 202,133 students were placed in degree programmes, 28,246 in Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), 500 in Diploma in Law, 765 in Kenya Utalii College and 875 in secondary teacher training colleges.

The CS further disclosed that 8,915 students who qualified for degree programmes opted to pursue non-degree courses in tertiary institutions and were successfully placed.

“We have placed a total of 293,869 students to degree, diploma level six, craft certificate level five and artisan certificate level four programmes across tertiary and higher education institutions,” Ogamba said.

While announcing the results, Ogamba acknowledged that some eligible students did not submit applications during the placement exercise and directed KUCCPS to establish the reasons while reopening the process for late applicants.

“We recognise that some eligible students did not apply for placement because they may have opted to seek alternative pathways to higher education and training, while others might have missed the opportunity due to other circumstances. I have requested KUCCPS to come up with a study to track and find out where these students are, but if there are those who missed the opportunity for any other reason, we are going to give them a chance to reapply. I have directed KUCCPS to immediately devise a mechanism to allow late applications for placement. I also call upon all eligible candidates who may have missed this application cycle to take advantage of this opportunity and apply. No student should be left behind,” he said.

The Cabinet Secretary also announced that the inter-university transfer window has been extended from the usual two weeks to one month to allow students sufficient time to change institutions or programmes if they wish.

“In order to allow time and opportunity for those placed who may wish to transfer from one university to another, we will be extending the transfer window from the normal period of two weeks to one month. Universities and colleges are now expected to immediately embark on preparations for admission and communicate the appropriate joining instructions,” he said.

Ogamba further announced that the Higher Education Financing portal has been opened for first-time applicants and urged all placed students seeking government funding to apply through the HEF or HELB portals as soon as possible.

Following the announcement, KUCCPS has advised the KCSE Class of 2025 to check their placement results through SMS notifications or by logging into the KUCCPS Student Portal to view their allocated institutions and courses.