Only qualified candidates will be offered admission –JAMB | Nairalaw

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board ( JAMB ) have
explained that admissions would be given only to qualified
candidates who applied for courses into the various institutions of
the country.

The board reiterated this in its Vol. 1, No 13 weekly Bulletin
of the Office of the Registrar and made available to the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

It described as misleading and erroneous, information being
circulated that over 50 per cent of candidates who yearly apply for
admissions into various institutions, were not admitted.

It also decried the reports that every year, after the conduct
of the Unified Tertiary and Universities Examination (UTME), where
millions of candidates apply, barely 20 per cent get admitted.

“The truth is that, admissions can only be given to qualified
candidates, hence, any figure being bandied around should equally
be based on the total number of candidates who applied and are
qualified.

“It will be an unfortunate postulation if the candidates who do
not have any basis to be considered for admissions to any tier of
the nation’s tertiary institutions are also included in the final
tabulation of candidates admitted.

“Given this scenario, it will be absurd for any narrative to
assume huge admission backlogs without first considering whether
the candidates that are not admitted are actually qualified for the
courses they applied for.”

The board noted that in 2018, a total of 1,793,018 candidates
applied for admissions into various academic programmes of 849
institutions in the country, with 140,020 applying through Direct
Entry (DE).

It added that when the candidates were categorized according to
UTME scores and O’Level credit passes, it was discovered that only
1,245,939 scored 100 and above out of 400 obtainable marks in the
UTME and also had five O’Level credits.

“The above clearly states that out of the 1,793,018 candidates
that applied for admission in 2018, only 1,200,748 candidates
scored 100 and above and possessed the O’Level credit requirement
for admission.

“That is, five credits in addition to Mathematics and English
Language.

“The 100 cut-off mark in UTME is not an admissible score for
most institutions apart from the Innovative Enterprise Institutions
(IEIs) which award the National Innovative Diploma (NID).

“To be considered for admission into most of the nation’s higher
institutions, a score of at least 140 and above would be
required.

“Based on this consideration, only 1,168,948 candidates had five
O’Level credits in Maths and English Language and also scored 140
and above in their UTME,” the board stated.

It explained further that based on the above category of
candidates, as recommended by the various institutions, the board
approved admissions of 570,089 candidates into the various
schools.

The board, however, said that it was important to note that it
had never admitted less than 60 per cent of the total number of
candidates who qualify for admissions in any given year, adding
that the reports about the number of admitted candidates were
misplaced.

It added that there were always programmes with vacancies at
some of the schools, even at the close of admission exercise.