Ahead of the release of this year’s admission cut-off points for courses in the nation’s universities, polytechnics and colleges of education by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on August 22, anxiety has enveloped candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
Candidates, who wrote the entry examinations are nursing fears that the expected cut off points may be raised higher than 180 and 200 that had been maintained over the last three years.
Although the general performances of candidates in this year’s examination recorded tremendous improvement over previous ones, with majority of the candidates scoring above 180, there are fears that the body may raise the admission benchmark in the universities to 200, given the high number of candidates who applied for limited admission slots in the universities.
Some candidates, who spoke with newsmen in Abuja, on anonymity, expressed fears that in view of the general performance of candidates in the UTME, which they noted was better than last two previous years’, coupled with the high number of candidates that registered and sat for the examination, JAMB may raise the entry marks to between 200 and 220.
Ahead of the admission, the board had warned institutions against shortchanging candidates whose performances merited admission, saying it would not condone such act.
“The board will ensure that criterion set by Senate are strictly adhered to by the institutions’ admission officers and no shifting of goal post in the middle of the admission exercise,” JAMB had warned in a recent statement signed by Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin. The statement said its warning was to “guarantee fairness and equity to all candidates.” The expected policy committee meeting, according to JAMB, will be attended by all stakeholders, including vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and monotechnics and provosts of colleges of education.
“The board has sent to all institutions a soft copy of printout of candidates who choose them. This year, the board has sent candidates who scored 100 and above in their JAMB to the institutions in its flexible admission policy for institutions to determine the suitability of the candidates in compliance with all laid down rules and regulations as determined by the proprietors of the institutions and approved by Senate of the various schools, “the statement had disclosed.
