Thousands of students seeking to join universities and colleges this yearr have a reason to smile after the government through KUCCPS lowered the minimum qualifications for some courses offered in various universities across the country.

Learners who will be joining university this year will be required to pick alternative subjects to meet minimum requirements for some degree courses.

Due to reforms and developments in the education sector and demands from the job market, the government has introduced new courses to cater for dynamics in the job market.

The greatest beneficiaries of the process are students wishing to pursue bachelors degree courses in education, agriculture, fashion and design among others.

The reviews will see the minimum grade for mathematics, biology and other subjects requirements in some courses lowered or substituted with other subjects.

KUCCPS Chief Executive Officer Mercy Wahome said the criteria was reached to recognise areas such as agriculture and education where many students are disadvantaged by the minimum subject requirements to enrol in universities.

The new guidelines will take effect in the upcoming university and college placement for KCSE students who will sit for the national examinations in March this year.

In the new guidelines, Wahome also said that home science will be recognised as one of the subjects for the students seeking to pursue degree courses in fashion and design which has not been the case ,previously.

Further, she said that in the new changes Kiswahili will be accepted as an alternative subject for English for students wishing to take a degree in education science. For students seeking to pursue a bachelor’s degree in education arts mathematics will not be a minimum subject requirement.

On the other hand for students seeking to pursue degree courses in Agribusiness and Agricultural economics, the minimum requirements for biology have been lowered from C+ to C plain.

As the government eases qualification requirements for degree courses ,Universities and colleges are likely to face a strain on their resources due to high admissions levels.