Joint Admissions Board (JAB)

(How does it select candidates.). The Joint Admissions Board (JAB) , is the admissions body that conducts the admissions to the public Universities.

Unlike in many countries, the admission to Kenya’s public Universities is centralized. Just recently, JAB announced that the second revision of courses will take place from Monday 25^th July to Saturday, 30^th July at the University of Nairobi (UON). So, here’s a small explanation of how the Joint admissions Board conducts the admission process. Just after the KCSE results are released, JAB sits and sets the cut off points. The cut off points for the 2010 KCSE candidates was 63 points for the male students and 61 points for female students. The lower points for the female students is considered to be some form of affirmative action to increase the number of female students enrolling in universities.

 After the cut off points have been announced, the Joint Admissions Board uses what is known as the weighted cluster points to select the candidates to the various courses. The weighted cluster points is a derivative of the overall aggregate points and the raw cluster points required to pursue a certain course. The raw cluster points are made up of the individual subjects that are required to study for a certain course. For instance, if one wanted to study medicine, the raw cluster points would be made up of English/Kiswahili, Biology, Chemistry and Math/Physics. The maximum raw cluster points is 48 whereas the maximum weighted cluster points is also 48. If you core all As, no doubt your weighted cluster points will be 48. Now, if the overall aggregate points and the raw cluster points start reducing, the weighted cluster points will also begin reducing.

Now, each course has a minimum weighted cluster point that a candidate should have in order to pursue the course. For instance, weighted cluster point for medicine and actuarial science usually hovers at around 47.7. If you are have not been able to meet the weighted cluster point for the first choice, the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), will simply move on until your last choice to allocate you some course. If after that they haven’t assigned a course to you yet, the Joint Admissions Board will invite the candidates over for the second revision so that the final list of candidates to various courses and public Kenyan Universities can be prepared. It only then that JAB will publish the final list of the selected candidates to various courses. There have been calls for JAB to implement a double intake strategy but this is a matter that is still under discussion.

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