Institutions decide cut-off mark, conduct admissions — JAMB

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) clarified that all tertiary institutions Nigeria decide their cut-off own cut-off mark and conduct their admissions without interference from the board.

The board, however, said the different cut-off point set by individual institutions are ratified by JAMB and others stakeholders at the yearly policy meeting that is held after Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is conducted by JAMB.

Spokesperson of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said the clarification becomes necessary based on erroneous believe in some quarters, with particular reference to comments credited to a former President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Nasir Fagge, published by an online media.

He noted that there is nothing like a uniform minimum national UTME score for any of the tiers of tertiary institutions and neither does JAMB decide any such requirement for any institution.

Benjamin said: “The board does not and has never determined any uniform national UTME scores otherwise known as cut-off mark by the general public for any tertiary institution because, in actual sense, there are no uniform national UTME scores.

“This process has even been improved upon with the elimination of human interference through its full automation with the introduction of the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).

“For the purpose of emphasis, the board conducts the UTME and hands over the results to institutions for the conduct of admissions. However, before the admission exercise commences a policy meeting is held with all the heads of the institutions in attendance and chaired by the Hon. Minister of Education.

“At this meeting, the admission guidelines, which include recommendations from individual institutions and their preferred minimum admission scores, are presented and deliberated upon at the meeting and not JAMB as erroneously portrayed by Prof. Fagge, because JAMB is only a member out of the close to about a thousand participants at the meeting.

“Prior to the meeting, for instance, more than 50% of the universities had submitted in writing their minimum scores of 200 and above to the board for presentation to the meeting for the purpose of deliberation. The same applied for the other tiers of tertiary institutions. The implication of this process is that no institution would be able to admit any candidate with any score below what they had submitted as their minimum score.

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“The board has no role whatsoever in the decision of the institutions to determine how or with what criteria they want to admit. The role of the board is to ensure that the goalpost is not shifted in the middle of the game.

“Furthermore, in most cases, the UTME score is not the sole determinant of placement of candidates into tertiary institutions. As such, the undue attention to the so-called national minimum UTME score (UTME cut-off point) is a major conception of many ill-informed candidates who assumed that they have finally attained the benchmark having achieved the so-called minimum national score or “cut-off point’ for admission.

“The board, therefore, for the umpteenth time, is stating unequivocally that there is no uniform minimum UTME score (cut-off) for all universities, polytechnics or colleges of education in Nigeria because each institution determines and submits to JAMB its minimum UTME score after analysing the UTME scores of its applicants against its available quota.

“It should, therefore, be noted that decisions at the annual policy meeting on admission does not reduce this minimum prescriptions emanating from the institutions except in the few situations where these institutions had submitted minimum UTME scores that fall below what the policy meeting considers as the acceptable minimum score. That is where the much-talked-about 140 came from, which is but a baseline that no institution should cross.

“It should, therefore, be noted that the UTME score is just one of the two or three scores that are generally cumulated to obtain the eventual aggregate score and ranking of the candidates by most institutions.

“Other parameters are Post-UTME/Post-A/L qualifications screening test score; O/L grade score; and in some cases, physical test (such as applicable in the Nigerian Defence Academy/Police Academy). Therefore, it is the score from all these segments that are added together to have an eventual ranking table or ‘cut-off’ score.

“Prof. Fagge and his likes may wish to request the video clips of the proceedings of the just-concluded 2022 Policy Meeting on Admissions to see how institutions are practically in charge of their various submissions on who they want to admit.