Private universities in Kenya are counting on their perceived superior programmes to attract students despite public universities having the capacity to absorb all students who qualified to study for degrees in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.

Private universities are bracing for a smaller pool of students to pick from after just 88,000 candidates attained the minimum grade C+ for admission into higher institutions of learning against 96,000 vacancies in public universities.

That leaves the 29 private universities competing for students who opt out of public universities for various reasons and an allocation of students from the placement service who are funded by taxpayers.

Many are likely to attempt to market themselves across East Africa to attract foreign admissions; however, some have already opened campuses outside Kenya.  

National Association of Private Universities in Kenya (NAPUK) secretary-general Vincent Gaitho said Kenya’s pledge to increase the number of government-sponsored students in private universities to 20,000 will help them fill up some of the slots. Many candidates do not get admitted for the courses they applied for at the public universities, forcing them to opt for private institutions.

Statistics from CPS International show that only 30 per cent of students in universities are pursuing the degrees of their choice. The private universities have over time capitalised on this by targeting students who have been signed up for university courses purely on the basis of the availability of space rather than preference.

The Kenya University College Central Placement Board, which is in charge of placing students in various degree and diploma courses in local institutions, sometimes places students in courses that they had not chosen.

A number of these students go to universities in different regional countries like Makerere, Kampala International University, Bugema, Gulu, and Busoga universities, though the numbers have been dwindling.

According to NAPUK, the private universities popular in Kenya are Mount Kenya University, Catholic University of Kenya, Daystar University and United States International University.

A plan by the government to set up a technical institutions in every county will help solve the problem of fewer mid-level colleges.

Vocational schools are not as popular with students. The courses offered there include plumbing, welding and fabrications, electrical wiring, electro-mechanics and automotive engineering.