2021 UTME: Universities to decide cut off marks as JAMB hands off

By Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has announced the cancellation of general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions allowing institutions to set their individual minimum benchmark for admission.

JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede who made this disclosure during a virtual meeting said, the board took the decision at the 2021 policy meeting chaired by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.

Prof Oloyede said that some universities such as University of Maiduguri proposed 150, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos 200, Lagos State University190, Covenant University190 while Bayero University Kano proposed 180 as cut off Marks.

While approving October 29, 2021 as deadline for the closure of amendments for 2021 admissions, the stakeholders resolved to allow the ministry to decide as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 3, 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 degree, 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, he 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 said 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.

According to the stakeholders, the 2021 admissions will be conducted only through CAPS, no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details on CAPS.

Oloyede further disclosed that for 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, 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 the 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 said 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 the use of the National Identification Number, NIN, in the registration process for UTME.

Represented by the 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 the West African Examination Council, WAEC, will also follow a similar path by adopting mandatory use of NIN.

“I am enthused that the last examination recorded the lowest cases of examination irregularities in the history of the Board because those who would normally have exploited the weak links through biometrics infractions had been effectively check-mated with the introduction of NIN by JAMB.

“It is gratifying that the WAEC has decided to follow the path of using NIN to curb examination malpractices. The Ministry is presently considering other ways of using the NIN to uncover some other admission irregularities and all perpetrators including their collaborators in the institutions would be made to face the consequences. ”

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 Central Admissions Processing System, CAPS, is being violated.

He directed JAMB to furnish the government with the list of affected institutions for necessary punishments.