Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has on Tuesday cancelled general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions and allowed the institutions freedom to set their individual minimum benchmark for admission.
The body said it would now be left for Nigeria’s tertiary institutions to determine its admission benchmark.
The Board took the decision at the 2021 policy meeting which was held virtually and chaired by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.
Speaking during the meeting, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said some universities such as University of Maiduguri proposed 150, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto proposed 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos 200, Lagos State University 190, Covenant University 190, Bayero University Kano, 180.
According to the stakeholders, 2021 admissions will be conducted only through Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) and no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details onto the portal.
The stakeholders also approved October 29, 2021, as the deadline for the closure of amendments for 2021 admissions as they could not agree on December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 31st 2022 for all public institutions.
Stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through JAMB.
The meeting approved that for Direct Entry (DE) the maximum score a candidate can present is 6 and the minimum is 2 or E, as required by law.
Speaking on other admission criteria, Oloyede said the candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on CAPS and recommended by the institution, JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.
He expressed that if candidates have not accepted an offer, the institution can change the candidate after informing JAMB.
Also approved at the policy were the guidelines that every institution is at liberty to admit candidates based on its own minimum score approved by the institution and the policy meeting.
The meeting also resolved that every institution should maintain its own minimum score as approved by the policy meeting.
Oloyede further disclosed that for the 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the board is introducing two new subjects: computer studies and physical and health education, bringing to a total of 25 subjects.
The stakeholders also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post UTME exercise.
Speaking on 2020 admissions, Oloyede said out of the 956,809 admission spaces in the 962 higher education institutions in the country about 600,000 have so far been admitted.
While saying there are many admission spaces that have not been filled up in several courses due to lack of qualified candidates, Oloyede expressed that private universities in the country were only able to admit 36,381 candidates out of the 120,938 spaces available to them.
Declaring the policy meeting open, Minister of Education, Adamu, commended JAMB for introducing use of the 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 malpractice in the 2021 exam, adding that West African Examination Council (WAEC) will also follow a similar path by adopting mandatory use of NIN.
On illegal admissions being conducted by some tertiary institutions, the minister 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 the government with the list of affected institutions for necessary punishments.
