The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the admission processes for 2017/2018 will commence on Sept.15 and close on Jan.31, 2018.
The Head of JAMB Information and Media, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, made this known in Bwari, Abuja, on Friday.
Benjamin said that the direct entry applications for admission would close Sept. 15.
He explained that students could only secure admission after they might have passed through the rudiments of admission processes.
“We have come up with Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) this year.
“This entails that once candidates are admitted and the institution approves, then JAMB will approve, the information about the candidates will be keyed into CAPS automatically.
“Candidates can monitor their admission process through CAPS online and those who want to get admission letter can do so by printing such online.’’
According to him, CAPS will make record gathering easy and give easy access to students to print their admission letters among other things.
“What we are trying to do now is that we are looking at the perimeter realistically; we decided to come up with a new strategy aimed at ensuring the actual data.
In a related development, Benjamin told NAN that the 120 minimum cut-off mark would not in any way affect the nation’s educational standard negatively as being alleged by some people.
He said that the issue of the 120 cut-off mark was a policy of heads of tertiary institutions across the country, being the outcome of their policy meeting recently.
“The cut-off mark was not the decision of JAMB, but the heads of tertiary institutions at the policy meeting.
“They decided that their institutions should be allowed to determine their own cut-off point based on their own peculiarities, but nobody for whatever reason should go below 120.
Benjamin explained that the sustenance of post UTME was a ministerial decision.
According to him, we are not opposed to the directive, we see nothing wrong with it, and our interest is to ensure that the goal of admission is achieved.
“What we are all doing is to ensure that the power given to tertiary institutions is based on policies which established them.’’
According to him, the important thing is for tertiary institutions to do what is right.
He noted that most tertiary institutions did not comply with the previous 180 cut-off mark that was given last year.
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) says the new cut-off mark for admission into universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education will affect the standard of education.
Mr. Usman Dutse, President of the union, on Friday in Lagos said that the union did not buy the decision of JAMB and what it intended to achieve with the development.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede had, on Tuesday, after the 2017 policy committee meeting, announced 120 as the minimum cut-off point for admission into degree-awarding institutions.
The cut-off mark for admission into polytechnics and colleges of education was fixed at 100.
Oloyede, however, said the institutions are at liberty to raise their cut off marks for admission above the minimum benchmark set by the board.
Dutse, in his reaction, said,“We believe that the cut-off mark is too low, and if adopted by institutions, will affect standard and value will be eroded.
“In the past, for various institutions, we have in Nigeria, even the 180 cut-off mark approved by JAMB some found too low, and now they are bringing it down to 120-100.
“For any examination in the world and any global ranking, there is nowhere 25 per cent is used as a pass mark.
“We do not know what the bases are and what it intends to achieve.
“The suggested cut-off mark is not good for the development of education and the candidates.’’
He faulted JAMB on its position that the cut-off mark is a minimum benchmark and institutions can increase it.
The union leader said if that was the case, institutions should be allowed to admit and set examinations.
Dutse said that any benchmark should be uniform and allow no room for the disparity.
“Sincerely, we are not comfortable with the policy.
“There was no much consultation with the stakeholders on the decision, JAMB only held a meeting with some heads of institutions once to inform them on what they intend to do,” he said.
According to him, there was no room for observation, suggestion and contribution on the proposal.
Dutse said the cut-off mark would also increase the number of students to be admitted by various institutions, in the face of inadequate facilities.
“With the 120 cut-off for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education, it means that the weak, the good, the bad and the ugly will be admitted.
“Over 1.6 million students applied for universities and the carrying capacity for all the institutions is about 500,000. Where are they going to put the remaining students?
“This new policy will affect merit because if everybody qualifies, that means `long leg`, corruption, connection and lobbying will mar the admission process as many will want to find a way to get admitted.
“Sincerely, this is not a welcome policy,’’ he said.
