JAMB pegs admissions at 180 points
From MODESTUS CHUKWULAKA, Abuja
Saturday, June 12, 2010


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For the third year running, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has pegged the cut-off mark for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions at 180 points, just as the board threatened to sanction private universities that flout admission guidelines.

The board and representatives of the institutions arrived at the decision during the maiden policy meeting on admission using the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which debuted this year.

Education minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Ahmed Rufai, who disclosed the decision to journalists in Abuja yesterday said it was a unanimous agreement that admissions be benchmarked on 180 points. Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education were in attendance at the meeting, which also reviewed issues arising from last year’s admission processes.
“We have met with the Vice- Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts, and discussed the issue of the cut-off mark for this year’s UTME and then we agreed on 180 as cut-off mark. Since it is a unified examination we agreed that it is uniformed for polytechnics, colleges of education as well as universities,” Ahmed Rufai said.

She insisted that JAMB and all the tertiary institutions must adhere strictly to 60:40 admissions ratio for sciences and /arts courses for universities and colleges of education and 70:30 ration for technology and non-technology courses for polytechnics and specialised institutions, in view of Nigeria’s technological need. This she said was “justified as usual, by Nigeria’s quest to build the human capital for industrial and knowledge-based economy.”

The minister, like the chairman of the governing board of JAMB, Igwe (Prof) Sam Ukpabi, had urged the institutions to follow the guidelines with regard to merit, quota, catchment areas and educationally disadvantage states. She directed all the institutions to publish as from henceforth the list of all candidates from areas that are less educationally developed.
Ukpabi had lauded the UTME initiative, which he said had come to stay, pointing out that having begun on a strong footing, as was evident in the speedy release of the results, it would grow from strength to strength. Ukpabi said the UTME was in line with the road map to education development fashioned during the tenure of immediate education minister, Dr. Sam Egwu.

According to him, all tertiary institutions across the country are now poised to conduct admissions following the speedy release of the examination results noting that six levels of admission would be conducted simultaneously.
Meanwhile, JAMB has indicated that licenses of tertiary institutions, which failed to adhere to admission guidelines, especially those bordering on carrying capacity, would be withheld. Registrar and Chief Executive of the board, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, said the government, as a deterrent would seize such licenses.

In his words, “their licenses would be seized because the minister made an allusion on that to a particular university.” He refused to name the affected university, saying however, that “their licenses would be seized. They are operating in Nigeria and they must comply with the law of the land”.

source read the daily sunnewspaper

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