Students at the University of Juba -courtesy PHOTO// Marco Di Lauro

The Ministry of Higher Education has announced intakes for all public universities across the country for the academic year 2016/2017.

According to the Director General for Admission and Evaluation, over 10,000 candidates are expected to compete for the 9,500 slots available this year.

Benjamin Gabriel says the process that started yesterday will continue for two weeks.

He said that about 7,500 students have applied for a Degree Program while 2,000 have applied for a Diploma Program.

“We have announced the admission for the academic year 2016/2017. We are urging student to come and apply,” Gabriel said.

Last year, the University of Juba delayed classes for the second semester for about a month in order to harmonize the calendar for all the students.

The Registrar for Academic Affairs said the delay was to ensure that other students start their classes together, because the first year students had started at a different calendar from the rest of the universities.

In this round of intake, the Ministry of Higher Education is urging students to apply to only five approved centers namely; The National Ministry of Education’s Head office, the Ministry of Higher Education in Konyo Konyo, and the Upper Nile University in Munuki.

“The target is for students who are holding South Sudan Certificate of 2017 or its equivalent of a foreign certificate, especially certificates from Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia” Gabriel stated.

“For foreign certificates, we want those who are holding either for 2017 or 2016. But for the South Sudan Certificate, it is only for 2017 -because in 2016 they had their chance last year.”

Benjamin also said the other two approved centers for registration are; Western Bahr el-Ghazal University in Wau and Rumbek University in Rumbek town.