UTME: New admission policy will strengthen varsities autonomy ―JAMB

THE Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has said that the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) newly introduced by the Board will strengthen the universities autonomy.

Oloyede, said this on Thursday in Abuja during a training and sensitisation forum on Central Admissions Processing system CAPS for 2017/2018 academic session.

The training is to empower stakeholders in enhancing efficiency.

He explained that CAPS would ensure that candidates were fairly treated, expands admission opportunities as well as protect academic calendar.

He noted that JAMB is a ranking body and not a certificate examination conducting body like West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), among others.

Oloyede condemned “under the table admissions”, saying the Board would no longer tolerate illegal admission of students since regularisation of student admission has been stopped.

He lamented a lot of institutions in the past admit students far above their stipulated capacity..

He said: “JAMB is a ranking body not an examination body like WAEC and NECO.  JAMB is to rank and to screen already qualified candidates. Pass or fail is not the focus of any ranking body”.

On the 2017/2018 cut off marks, Oloyede said stakeholders picked 120, 110 and 100 respectively for Universities and other Institutions as threshold below which no Institutions can admit candidates.

The Registrar noted that scoring higher than the required cut off mark does not guarantee admission but makes candidates eligible for Admission consideration.

“The cut off mark is not fail or pass mark, it is not total score but one of the many factors that will be used for admission such as Post-UTME, where applicable,” he said.

Oloyede listed China ,Iran, Republic of Georgia , Spain,Turkey as countries of the world that shares similarities with Nigeria in the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.