The National Ministry of Higher Education revealed Thursday that a paltry number of 6, 952 students have been admitted to both public and private universities in the 2022 intake.
Gabriel Changson Chang, revealed that this number falls below the set target of 19,978 for both diploma and degree studies.
“The planned number of admissions is 19,978 for both degree and diploma in all public and private universities but unfortunately the total taken is 6, 952 students, the remaining vacant positions are 13,016,” Changson told journalists at Pyramid Hotel in Juba.
He disclosed that the number of female students admitted is about 40 percent compared to males.
Changson said that the admission process was delayed by a year due to financial constraints.
“Some of the universities or colleges did not receive students, some received very few students. The only university that received 80 percent of students is University of Juba,” he said.
Justo Wani Jada, the Acting Undersecretary in the Ministry for Higher Education, said that the admission process needs financial support to realize set targets.
“With the help of our government we need to adjust ways of doing things, I am appealing that we try our level best, it needs a lot of efforts from us otherwise we cannot do admission without resources,” Jada said.
John Akec, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, said that the admission of students to universities should be done by the ministry of higher education in coordination with the universities.
“We have said time and again that the ministry of higher education needs to sit down with universities to see how we can resolve this mismatch between the years that students sit their exams and the year they enroll in universities,” Akec said.