By
Wale Odunsi
The Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board, JAMB, has fixed minimum cut off marks for Nigeria’s
tertiary institutions.
The minimum cut off
marks for admissions into universities in Nigeria was set for 120, polytechnics
and colleges of education pegged at 100. Innovative enterprising institutes was
pegged at 110.
However, institutions
can raise their cut off marks for admission above the minimum set by JAMB.
Also, admissions into
public degree awarding institutions for the 2017 UTME examination will end on
January 15, 2018 while for private institutions, it ends on January 31, 2018.
Meanwhile, decisions on
first choice candidates by universities will end on October 15, and second
choice candidates will end on December 15; after which the remaining students
will be available in the market place for other institutions till the January
closing dates.
These decisions were
taken at the 2017 Combined Policy Meetings on Admissions into Tertiary
Institutions in Nigeria which ended on Tuesday.
The Registrar of JAMB,
Ishaq Oloyede, said a Central Admission Processing System, CAPS, will be used
to streamline admission processes among institutions, as it addresses
challenges associated with the former approach.
Oloyede also said that
Institutions could conduct dual mode system which involves both manual and the
newly introduced CAPS.
“All over the world,
there is agitation for dynamic educational policy,” he said.
“JAMB only admits for
National Diploma, not Higher National Diploma; so why should we use the same
requirement for ND and BSC, that is unreasonable parity.
“We should not be
sentimental in fixing our cut off mark; we need not over-dramatise issue of cut
off mark.”
He said candidates’
applications to study agriculture was very low while applications to study
medicine and health sciences increased.
Speaking on illegal
admissions, he said the process is now automated because the Registrar of JAMB
must approve all candidates.
“About 17,160 students
were admitted without JAMB across institutions in Nigeria,” he said.