Your Rights To Admission Will Not Be Denied, JAMB Assures UNILAG Applicants

The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has assured fairness and equity in resolving the admission procedural issue with the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

The Board was reacting to an online publication that alleged that some admission applicants were being denied admission in the University of Lagos because of JAMB’s failure to upload WAEC results on the portal.

A statement signed JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin assured candidates involved in the issue of JAMB’s intervention, adding that their right to admission, if qualified, would not be denied.

“Consequently, all those who uploaded at the right time on Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), and ranked appropriately would be considered by the University as stated by relevant advisories,” Benjamin said.

He called on candidates, especially high-scoring ones, who were not offered admission and strongly feel they merit such, to take advantage of the Board’s complaints platform and raise requisite tickets as their complaints would be looked into expeditiously and resolved.

“ If their application is deemed unsuccessful, they would be provided with sufficient reason(s), if any, why they were not considered for admission. And where they had been unjustly denied their due rights, provided they have met all ranking requirements, the Board would ensure that they obtain redress,” he said.

While explaining the processes of the admission, JAMB spokesperson said: “First, the Board would want to state clearly that its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), a platform on which all admissions are conducted and through which candidates are expected to upload their O/level results, was established to engender transparency and accountability in the admission process.

“Furthermore, resolving candidates’ complaints with respect to their admission status is a major component of the software, which was introduced to ensure that no candidate is denied admission unjustly.

“One of the major provisions of the platform and others like the Ticketing platform is their capacity to empower candidates to interact directly with the Board with a meticulous record of such interactions archived and generating an electronic trail that all operators could access to ascertain the true position of things should any dispute arise.

“As a regulator, one of the central responsibilities of the Board to candidates and other stakeholders is to ensure that no candidate, who is qualified to be admitted is denied such admission, hence the several provisions by the Board for candidates to always raise queries when they feel shortchanged.”

He stated that the process of admission requires candidates to upload their O’Level results on the CAPS platform, among others, to determine their eligibility for tertiary education.

“ To ensure wider access, candidates are, at the point of registration, allowed to register with ‘Awaiting Result’ but such results being awaited must be uploaded before the commencement of admission by their chosen institution otherwise, they would be deemed unqualified,” it said

Benjamin added that candidates, who upload their O’Level results after the stipulated time for consideration of admission, stand no chance even when they eventually upload such results or petition their choice institutions.

“However, no candidate should be left out if he/she uploads within the stipulated time and is ranked amongst qualified candidates in any particular course of study.

“To facilitate this, the CAPS tracking facility indicates the date, time and even seconds that such results were uploaded and, as such, provides incontrovertible evidence in the event of disputes,” he said.

He said that some candidates, through the “Ticketing Platform” of the Board, queried their failure to get admitted positing that by virtue of their ranking on the platform, they ought to be admitted.

“Their claim is being investigated to ascertain their veracity with such universities being engaged to arrive at a just and equitable outcome. At the end of the investigations, it is our belief that justice would be seen to have been done.

“The Board as a responsible and responsive agency has, over the years, ensured that institutions admit candidates even where they feel strongly that such candidates do not deserve such admission based on certain principles which the Board feels had not been sufficiently or clearly defined ab initio,” the statement said.

Benjamin added that the Board would not abandon its statutory responsibility of ensuring that admission processes are monitored constantly to protect any candidate from being shortchanged.

“To protect the interest of all candidates, the Board assigns a Desk Officer to each institution to monitor their respective admission transactions and call the attention of management to instances where fairness, equity and justice are not seen as being upheld,” he said.