THE management of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has officially cancelled the general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria for the 2021/2022 admission year.

According to the report made available for newsmen, institutions now have the freedom to set their individual cut off mark as a minimum benchmark for admission into their school.

With abolishing of the age-long method, each tertiary institutions in Nigeria have is now authorised to peg its admission cut off mark.

The admission management board took the drastic decision at the 2021 virtual policy meeting which was chaired by the Minister of Education, Prof. Adamu Adamu, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono.

According to the report by Punch Newspaper, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, during the board virtual meeting, said,

“Some universities such as 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, Bayero University Kano, 180.

“Institutions have now been given the liberty to decide cutoff marks; there will be no cutoff from JAMB this time. The cutoff will be a combination of scores from JAMB score, university minimum benchmark, SSCE and practical, where applicable.”

The meeting also agreed that the fee for the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination should not exceed N2,000.

The JAMB registrar, Prof. Oloyede warned institutions not to exceed the pegged UTME fee during the meeting.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Adamu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, said,

“Nobody should charge more than N2,000. The total gross is N2,000. It is not allowed by institutions to allow candidates to procure administrative charges.

“No institution is allowed to capture or demand any result upload. It is the one that we upload on CAPS that we will send to all of you. The biometrics supplied by JAMB should be used for the exercise.”

On the deadline for the closure of admissions, the stakeholders resolved to allow the ministry to decide as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 31, 2022 for all private institutions.

Stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, NCE, OND, and others must be posted only through JAMB.

The meeting approved that for Direct Entry, the maximum score a candidate should present was six, while the minimum was two or E as required by law.

Speaking on other admission criteria, Oloyede said, “The candidate’s credentials must be uploaded on CAPS and recommended by the institution JAMB approves and the candidate accepts the offer of admission.

“If candidates have not accepted an offer, the institution can change the candidate after informing JAMB.”

According to the stakeholders, the 2021 admissions will be conducted only through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS); no institution is allowed to admit candidates without uploading their details on CAPS.

Oloyede further disclosed that for 2021/2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the board is introducing two new subjects: Computer Studies and Physical and Health Education, bringing to a total of 25 subjects.

The stakeholders also exempted prison inmates, visually impaired and foreign candidates from sitting for post UTME exercise.

Speaking on the 2020 admissions, Oloyede said, “Out of the 956,809 admission spaces in the 962 higher education institutions in the country, about 600,000 have so far been admitted.

“Private universities in the country were only able to admit 36,381 candidates out of the 120,938 spaces available to them.”

Source: Punchng