ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
This article will attempt to show the factors that underpin choice of university programmes by new students.
For specificity, this paper will include, but not limit to, prestigious courses to be, science-based courses, Information Technology, Business-oriented courses and Law. This is in light of the fact that the science, information and technology are the dominant sectors in current times.
This article will refer to statistics and information about universities in Kenya and will therefore mostly attempt to prove its thesis in this geographical constraint.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In the Kenyan education system, students join universities after completing secondary school education. Due to limited space and other resources in the universities, students have to achieve minimum qualifications in order to be considered for admission to both public and private universities. The Joint Admissions Board, commonly referred to as JAB, is the institution responsible for setting the minimum qualification requirements this varies greatly depending on the courses selected. JAB is tasked to determine the number of students who join universities under the government sponsorship scheme. After determining the students eligible for admission to public universities, more specific restrictions are used in order to pick students for various university programmes (http://www.joint-admissions-board.ac.ke/). Students still have a relatively wide range of possibilities to choose from even within these restrictions. Interestingly, the number of students admitted to public universities through J.A.B depends on the total number of beds available in all the public universities. Nonetheless, those who miss out but attained the minimum university entry mark of C+ or C with a relevant diploma certificate are admitted through the parallel degree programmes (module II) if they can afford the
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