It’s unfortunate that varsities of agriculture are offering Law, Banking

THE Federal Government has warned all specialised universities against running of unauthorised programmes outside their core mandates and objectives for their establishment.

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, accordingly directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to delete all such courses from its portal.

He equally advised all candidates desirous of sitting for the 2017 Universities Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) not to be hoodwinked into such programmes as they were illegal and must not be in the brochure.

He urged the specialised universities to stick to core mandates for which they were set up and desist from running programmes which had no bearing to their establishment.

“Specialised universities are universities set up to pursue specific courses/ programmes to steer the need of manpower in a particular sector of the economy. Some of these specialised institutions include  Universities of Agriculture, Universities of Technologies, Universities of Medicine, among others,” he pointed out.

In a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Federal Government had observed that these institutions had derailed from their statutory responsibilities and are running programmes antithetical to their mandates.

He said: “Government notes the unfortunate situation, where universities of agriculture offer programmes in Law, Management courses such as Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Adminsitration, among others.

“As if that was not enough, some institutions change the nomenclature of some of the courses to read, for instance, Banking, Engineering, Accounting Technology, among other names. This is an aberration and should be stopped with immediate effect.

“Again, the Board will want to state that it has not commenced the sales of the 2017 UTME application forms. Candidates are urged to exercise patience, as JAMB is putting final touches toward commencement of sales.

“ The delay is occasioned by the board’s desire to reduce, to the barest minimum, challenges associated with the conduct of the board’s examination. However, in the final analysis, Nigerians should note that admissions will be conducted within the stipulated deadline.

“In view of the above, candidates and parents are advised not to pay money to any agent or bank for any registration, as JAMB has not and will not appoint any agent. Soon, we will commence the sales and the board will make elaborate announcement with jingles to ensure that the public is well informed of the commencement of sales.

“Our earnest attempt is to come near perfection in the conduct of the next examination and we plead with the public to support the Board’s effort in ensuring that Nigerian candidate gets the best,” Benjamin said.