The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed tertiary institutions to independently decide on candidates cut-off marks for admission for the 2021/2022 academic calendar.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said the decision was taken at the 2021 policy meeting to herald the commencement of the 2021 admission exercises.
The meeting had in attendance heads of tertiary institutions who discussed admission related issues.
He said October 29 deadline had been set for the closure of amendments for 2021 admissions. He said the meeting also approved that every institution was at liberty to admit candidates based on its own minimum score.
It was however learnt that the decision to allow universities, polytechnics and colleges of education adopt their cut-off marks was reached due to the inability to arrive at a particular figure, as was the case some years ago, where by voice vote, the institutions arrived at a particular figure as cut-off mark for admission.
Oloyede who spoke on the coutcome of the meeting said some universities as University of Maiduguri proposed 150 minimum cut-off mark; Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto, 140; Pan Atlantic University, 210; University of Lagos, 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University, 190 and Bayero University Kano, 180.
He said those at the meeting resolved to allow the ministry to decide as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021 deadline for public institutions and January 31, 2022, for private institutions.
Oloyede said stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provided that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degree, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through JAMB. He said candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) and recommended by the institution, while JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.
“If any candidate fail to accept an offer, the institution is at liberty to change the candidate after informing JAMB,” he said.
Oloyede said that for the 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the board is introducing two new subjects, computer studies, and physical and health education, bringing total subjects undertaken in Nigeria to 25.
The stakeholders also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post-UTME exercise.
Speaking on the 2020 admissions, Oloyede said out of the 956,809 admission spaces in 962 higher education institutions in the country, about 600,000 have so far been admitted.
Oloyede said private universities in the country were only able to admit 36,381 candidates out of the 120,938 spaces available to them. He said there were many admission spaces that have not been filled up in several courses due to lack of qualified candidates,
Declaring the policy meeting open, Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, commended JAMB for introducing use of National Identification Number (NIN) in the registration process for UTME.
Represented by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, the minister said the use of NIN drastically reduced examination malpractices in the 2021 UTME, adding that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) will also follow similar path by adopting mandatory use of NIN.
He expressed concerns that the government’s directive that all admissions should be done through JAMB’s CAPS is being violated.
He directed JAMB to furnish government with the list of affected institutions for necessary punishments.
