Why 20,000 students are forfeiting their dream medical careers every year

The Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) has revealed that approximately 20,000 students placed in its campuses through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) fail to take up their admission slots every intake cycle.

The primary driver behind this mass forfeiture is the inability of prospective students to afford training fees. Without access to mainstream government scholarships or Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) financing, many financially disadvantaged candidates are forced to abandon their dreams of joining the medical workforce.

The alarming figures came to light when KMTC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kelly Oluoch appeared before the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) Committee in Parliament.

Addressing the committee, Dr. Oluoch outlined the systemic disconnect that leaves KMTC trainees out of the national funding framework. He explained that because KMTC operates under the Ministry of Health rather than the Ministry of Education which oversees the country's higher education financing arrangements its students are excluded from accessing the Ksh300 billion education financing package.

“KMTC should not have to leave the Ministry of Health to get funded. National financing legislation should recognise KMTC trainees as post-secondary students deserving equitable state funding,” Dr. Oluoch stated during the session.

He maintained that the institution must remain under the Ministry of Health due to the specialized nature of its curriculum, which involves extensive clinical training, mandatory hospital attachments, and oversight by specific healthcare regulatory bodies.

He drew comparisons to other specialized vocational institutions, such as Bukura Agricultural College, the Kenya Water Institute, and Utalii College, which successfully operate under their respective sector ministries while receiving state support.

The magnitude of the 20,000 unclaimed admission slots becomes starkly apparent when compared against KMTC's overall capacity.

In recent cycles, KUCCPS reported thousands of available vacancies across dozens of specialized programmes and numerous campuses nationwide. For instance, during the March intake, thousands of vacancies were advertised across multiple courses, with similar numbers mirrored in subsequent recruitment phases.

Despite placement agencies previously noting government efforts to extend HELB support to KMTC applicants, the financial reality on the ground remains prohibitive for most families.

When students fail to report due to financial constraints, their allocated slots effectively go to waste, leaving qualified candidates who might have had the means to study locked out simply because places were tied up during the placement window.

Furthermore, this exclusion hits the wider health sector hard. Dr. Oluoch highlighted that KMTC currently hosts nearly 90,000 students and trains over 85 % of Kenya’s healthcare workforce. Crippling the training pipeline at this foundational level directly threatens the nation's long-term healthcare staffing goals.

Lawmakers and institutional heads are actively debating structural reforms to resolve the funding stalemate.

During the parliamentary proceedings, Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo proposed that KUCCPS introduce a clear warning on its application portal. The notification would explicitly inform prospective KMTC students that courses currently operate under self-sponsored terms and do not automatically attract government funding, helping families plan better before accepting placements.

To comprehensively address funding challenges across all tertiary levels, Dr. Oluoch proposed housing the planned Tertiary Education Funding Authority (TEFA) directly under the National Treasury.

According to the CEO, centralizing financial assistance through the Treasury would ensure that students can access necessary loans and grants regardless of which specific ministry oversees their parent institution.