The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) has released the cutoff points that will be used to place candidates who sat the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations into degree programmes for the 2025/2026 academic year.
These cutoff points represent the minimum cluster points attained by the last student admitted to each programme during the 2024 KUCCPS placement cycle.
The cutoff points always change year-on-year depending on the demand for a specific course, an institution’s capacity, and overall candidates’ performance in the national examinations.
According to the report, highly competitive courses, such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science, continue to attract high cutoff points.
This was particularly evident in leading institutions such as University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
At the same time, KUCCPS noted a slight reduction in cutoff points for several humanities, education, and basic science courses in some universities to give more students an opportunity to secure degree placements.
List of Degree Courses & Cutoff Points
Medicine: 42.0 – 44.9
Pharmacy: 39.9 -43.7
Civil Engineering: 34.3 – 43.1
Clinical Medicine: 34.6- 40.7
Electrical and Electronic Engineering: 33.9 – 42.8
Mechanical Engineering: 31.7 -41.8
Computer Science: 23.0 – 44.4
Actuarial Science: 25.8 – 37.0
Architecture: 39.0 0 42.5
Quantity Surveying: 34.0 – 38.2
Biochemistry: 24.1 – 29.9
Biology: 15.6 – 25.0
Agriculture: 23.6 – 29.1
Food Science & Technology: 23.1 – 31.2
Bachelor of Arts: 21.8 – 25.6
Mathematics: 21.2 – 28.7
Journalism and Mass Communication: 21.9- 31.6
Human Resource Management: 21.4 – 32.5
Food Nutrition and Dietetics: 23.4- 31.9
Medical Laboratory Sciences: 31.7-40.3
Economics and Statistics: 29.8- 30.3
Hospitality and Tourism Management: 22.6 – 30.4
Information Technology: 21.9-33.6
International Relations and Diplomacy: 24.6- 32.7
Public Health: 26.6-35.8
Hotel Management: 22.2-28.06
Real Estate: 27.4-32.6
Education Arts/ With Special Needs/ With IT: 22.1- 30.6
Candidates have been advised to check the KUCCPS student portal to view the specific cutoff points for their preferred courses and institutions, with applicants urged to make informed choices.
However, meeting the cutoff point does not automatically guarantee placement, as competition and programme capacity are also considered during the selection process.
The new cutoff points are expected to guide students, parents, and schools as they prepare for the upcoming university placement that is expected to commence from March this year.
Meanwhile, a total of 270,715 candidates scored a mean grade of C+ (plus) and above in the 2025 KCSE examination, representing 27.18 per cent of the total candidates.
These students qualified for direct university admission, with 1,932 candidates attaining the highest grade of A. Candidates have since been urged to monitor the KUCCPS portal for the opening of the placement application window.