From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The 2024 policy meeting by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Abuja, last week, marked the beginning of the admission exercise into tertiary institutions in the country.
Heads of all tertiary institutions (public and private) and top admission officers of the institutions participated in the meeting.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, chaired the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and admission exercise for the previous year, and took decisions expected to guide admission exercise in this year.
Controversial age limit
Mamman told the meeting: “Being a vice-chancellor for over seven years gave me the opportunity to see how these underage students struggle to cope in several ways whenever they are ‘prematurely’ pushed into the universities.
“When I was monitoring the 2024 UTME, I was alarmed at the large number of obviously underage candidates who were participating in the examination, which necessitated the need to enforce the extant provisions of the educational policies. The National Policy on Education (NPE), made provision for nine years of basic education and three years of senior secondary education before entry into tertiary institution.
“It’s clear that a child, as expected, is enrolled in basic school at the age of six, and having undergone 12 years of education, would be around 18 years old when being enrolled in a tertiary institution.
“But subsequent information revealed that the enrolment of underage candidates is inflicting serious damage on the university and the education system, hence, the need for the enforcement of extant rules.
“I have been informed about the surge in applications for requests for a change of age to reflect higher age in anticipation of the imminent enforcement of the age policy. This, again, reflects dangerous games being played with the life and future of innocent children by those expected to nurture them.
“Flowing from this, JAMB is, hereby, instructed to admit only eligible students, i.e., those who have attained 18 years. Universities are also advised to avoid recommending unqualified children for admission.”
But the decision didn’t go down well with the stakeholders, who insisted on reversal of the decision, allowing for some time for proper implementation. But after brief consultations, the minister decided that the policy on age limit would become effective from the 2025 admission. The reason for the shift was because many candidates were not informed about the decision before the commencement of UTME registration.
Obafemi Awolowo University chose 200 as their minimum admissable scores. Several others picked 180, 170, 150, 140, 130, 120 and even lower. But at the end of the day, the institutions unanimously agreed that 140 should be the minimum admissable scores.
“But note that this doesn’t mean that the institutions that had chosen higher scores will reduce their standard. They are free to maintain their decisions, but the general consensus means they won’t admit candidate with UTME score that’s below 140.” Same process was also applied in the case of polytechnics and colleges of education.
Some polytechnics and colleges of education chose 70, 80, 60, and even below. But at the end, all the institutions decided at the meeting that 100 should be their minimum admissable scores.
Instructively, JAMB confirmed that every institution was at liberty to determine the minimum UTME score acceptable for admission. Similarly, for Direct Entry, each institution determines the number of points required for direct entry admission.
Nevertheless, no institution can recommend or admit any candidate with lower than two points for Direct Entry. In the same vein, no institution can admit/accept the transfer of a candidate for any degree programme unless the candidate will spend on full-time not less than two consecutive academic sessions in the institution
Innovations on admission process
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said some changes/innovations have been introduced to the 2024 admission exercise.
He was particular about the verification of certificates for Direct Entry (DE) candidates as well as strict compliance with the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), and several other innovations as were introduced, thus asking the heads of institutions and admission officers to get acquainted with the new introductions.
He insisted that the 2024 admission exercise will be conducted on CAPS, stressing that no institution is permitted to publish, announce, exhibit or paste any name (s) of admitted candidates without prior approval of the name on CAPS.
He added: “No offer of admission should be communicated to any candidate through any other means except CAPS unless the candidate has been initially approved for admission on CAPS. Also, individual institution’s websites/platforms can publish admission already approved on CAPS. Similarly, No candidate can be registered for any course other than the one he/she had been offered and accepted on CAPS.”
ADMISSION PROCESS
At the beginning of the meeting, the registrar, reminded the institutions that the core mandate of JAMB is to ensure placement of suitably qualified candidates in various tertiary institutions, emphasizing that such should be done in collaboration with the tertiary institutions after taking into account; the vacancies available in each tertiary institution; the guidelines approved for each one by its proprietor or other competent authority; the preferences expressed or otherwise as indicated by candidates for certain tertiary institutions and programmes.
Oloyede re-highlight the criteria for admission into various institutions, insisting that the criteria wasn’t set by JAMB, but in some cases, the individual institutions in line with the recommendations of National Policy on Education.
Earlier, the minister of education had warned the institutions against violating admission guidelines, insisting that all institutions must adhere strictly to the guidelines, and all other prescribed criteria by the regulatory bodies such as NUC, NBTE and NCCE. Institutions are expected to acquaint themselves with all the processes, in order to enhance transparent, fairness and accuracy for which JAMB is known for.
Criteria for 2024 admission
The criteria set for the 2024 admission was unanimously endorsed at the meeting by the stakeholders, an indication that candidates must meet the set criteria to stand eligible for admission in the 2024 academic circle.
However, JAMB said it’s saddened by the fact that despite all its advocacy efforts over the years, some candidates and their parents have not acquaint themselves with the criteria for admissions, hence they make mistakes during UTME registration particularly in choice of institution, subject combination, and several others which reduces their eligibility chances for admission.
At the policy meeting, JAMB re-highlighted the criteria and appealed to parents and candidates to get acquainted with the criteria so they can improve their chances of securing admissions.
“So many admission quotas/opportunities are missed annually because of ignorance. How can someone from a state in South West seeking admission to study Law or Medicine in a state-owned university in North West. That’s possible but might be a little bit difficult to achieve. Because that state-owned institution has its catchment areas and other peculiarities. That’s also applicable in federal-owned institutions.
“Candidates must, therefore, know where their chances of securing admission are high, as well as courses to apply for in such institutions to stand the chance. Prospective candidates and institutions are encouraged to study the criteria for admission so they can make right choices, thereby increasing their chances of securing admissions.”
Nevertheless, there are Federal Government established guidelines and criteria for admissions, which every institution is expected to comply with, perhaps, in addition to other peculiarities as the case maybe. These criteria include; 60:40 (Science/Art ratio) for conventional universities/colleges of education; 80:20 for Specialized Universities; and 70:30 (Technology/non-Technology ratio) for polytechnics and monotechnics.
The guidelines on admissions might also be as prescribed by the institutions’ proprietors. For instance, for federal institutions, the allotment shall be Merit (45%); Catchment areas (35%) and Educationally Less Developed States (20%).
Similarly, on merit quota for federal and state institutions; the established criteria is that for federal institutions, merit quota is 45 per cent; but for state institutions, the merit quota should be in two layers as follows: Indigene quota and national quota. In this case, the national merit quota for state institutions is the first topmost 10 per cent irrespective of where the candidate might come from or classification; while indigene merit quota for state-owned institutions is the additional 35 per cent allotted to indigenes of the state on a merit basis after the first topmost 10 per cent national merit.
But the case is different with private tertiary institutions. They are often encouraged to apply the criteria as approved by their proprietors, but JAMB must be notified of the criteria.
WHO DECIDES ‘CUT-OFF MARK’?
The debate on who determines the minimum admissable scores popularly known as “cut off mark” for admissions has always been a heated debate. In response, JAMB repeatedly explained that “there’s nothing like cut-off mark’ neither has it ever determined the minimum admissable scores for institutions, insisting that the decisions have been the responsibility of the institutions, and that, they have been doing over the years, and that the board only endorse whatever they might had decided at its annual policy meeting.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Oloyede, disclosed that the standard practice is that few weeks to the policy meeting, institutions contacted with a request to submit their minimum admissable scores through a dedicated channel. “These are collated afterwards, and displayed at the policy meeting for all participants to critique and made suggestions, and take final decision on what score to adopt as minimum admissable score for the year.
He said: “Nigerians should note that it’s the institutions that decide this minimum admissable scores popularly known as “cut off mark” and not JAMB as being widely believed. We only endorse whatever was decided and ensure that no institution violate the agreement.
“Few weeks ago when the requests were sent to institutions for this year’s admission exercise, several institutions returned with different figures. Four universities, namely, Pan-Atlantic, Covenant, University of Lagos, and Obafemi Awolowo, chose 200 as their minimum admissable scores. Several others picked 180, 170, 150, 140, 130, 120 and even lower. But at the end of the day, the institutions unanimously agreed that 140 should be the minimum admissable scores.
“But note that this doesn’t mean that the institutions that had chosen higher scores will reduce their standard. They are free to maintain their decisions, but the general consensus means they won’t admit candidate with UTME score that’s below 140. Same process was also applied in the case of polytechnics and colleges of education.
Some polytechnics and colleges of education chose 70, 80, 60, and even below. But at the end, all the institutions decided at the meeting that 100 should be their minimum admissable scores.
Instructively, JAMB confirmed that every institution is at liberty to determine the minimum UTME score acceptable to it for admission. Similarly, for Direct Entry, each institution determines the number of points required by it for direct entry admission.
Nevertheless, no institution can recommend or admit any candidate with less than two points for direct entry. In the same vein, no institution can admit/accept the transfer of a candidate for any degree.
WHY CANDIDATES FAIL TO SECURE ADMISSIONS
Data obtained from JAMB indicated that in 2023 admission year, 5,261 candidates scored 300 and above, but about 24 per cent (1,273) couldn’t secure admission. Similarly, 9,437 scored 280 and above, but 31 per cent (2,928) couldn’t secure admission. At same time, 41,446 scored 250 and above, but unfortunately, 37 per cent (15,399) couldn’t secure admission.
The document further noted that some candidates are very rigid in their decisions as regards course of choice. For instance, the document noted that about 331,208 candidates jostled for 66,386 (quota) opportunities to study Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Nigerian universities, while 62,792 candidates were admitted in the 2023 admission year.
It also added that 300,267 candidates jostled for 265,634 spaces for various science courses, and 138,795 candidates were able to secure admissions, while 210,138 candidates jostled for 108,632 spaces for social science courses, and 76,573 were admitted.
Sadly, Agriculture and Education courses witnessed poor application and admission in the 2023 admission. There were 47,824 available spaces for agricultural courses in the 2023 admission year. 44,160 initial applications were received, while 28,775 candidates were admitted. Similarly, there were 129,275 spaces in the education courses. 44,160 initial applications were received, and 75,937 candidates were admitted.
JAMB highlighted that aside over subscription of few programmes, some of the reasons for non- admissions include, no O’ level especially for trial candidates; wrong O’ level subject combination; low (Post UTME) screening score but inordinate dream of programme; UTME-combination deficiency; non-acceptance of offer due to rigidity; absent from Post UTME screening; mismatch of catchment Institutions, among several others.