UTME: Tertiary Institutions To Set Own Standards As JAMB Cancels General Cut Off Marks

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it has cancelled general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The body has given individual schools the liberty to decide the cut off marks which candidates must acquire or exceed to gain admission into their institutions.

JAMB decided on this at the 2021 policy meeting which held virtually and was chaired by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

Speaking at the meeting, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, listed the benchmarks chosen by some tertiary institutions.

“Some universities such as the University of Maiduguri, proposed 150; Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, proposed 140; Pan Atlantic University proposed 210; University of Lagos 200; Lagos State University, 190; Covenant University 190; and Bayero University, Kano, 180.

“Institutions have now been given the liberty to decide cut-off marks; there will be no cut-off marks from JAMB,” he said.

Regarding the deadline for the closure of admissions, the stakeholders resolved to let the Ministry of Education decide, seeing as they could not come to an agreement on the December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 31, 2022 for all private institutions.

The stakeholders also agreed that for direct entry candidates, a maximum score of six and a minimum score of two or an E must be attained.

The meeting decided that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND and others must be posted only through JAMB.

Earlier this month, JAMB released a bulletin on the policy meeting, stating that it serves to kick start the admission process into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.

“It will discuss critical issues emanating from the presentation of the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, on the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, and Direct Entry applications, in addition to setting the tone for the 2021/2022 admission exercise.

“The meeting, in addition to other deliberations, would take a stand on acceptable minimum admissions standards to be applied in all admissions to be undertaken by all tertiary institutions in Nigeria,” the bulletin said.

It also stated that the meeting would chart policy directions for the nation’s tertiary institutions, set admission guidelines and present application statistics, candidates’ performance as well as evaluate the 2020 admission exercise.

JAMB also warned tertiary institutions against beginning their admission processes before the event was held.

“The Board makes it clear that it is an abuse of process for any institution to commence any admission exercise before this meeting, as it is this forum that gives this authorisation”, the bulletin said.