JAMB Releases New University Admission Guidelines..
Students seeking admission may have gotten a lifeline following a new set of guidelines by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
According to The Nation, the board on Monday, July 4, explained that the new guidelines for admission process was made through its website following consultations with universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.
The new admission process would work for candidates who wrote the examination and direct-entry, with the board explaining that universities would collect screening fees from candidates at the end of admission process.
The board stated: “Before a candidate can be considered for screening, he/she must have been given provisional admission by JAMB. The JAMB admission checker portal is going to be opened soon for this process, so praying is all you can do now.”
Explaining further, JAMB stated that the point system where admission would depend on the point tally of the candidate means: “JAMB’s provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally will decide your faith. “The points are evenly spread out between your O’level and JAMB results to provide a level playing field for all.
“In the first case, any candidate who submits only one result which contains his/her relevant subjects already has 10 points, the exam could be NECO, WAEC, GCE etc, but any candidate who has two sittings only gets two points. So, this means that aspirants with only one result are at an advantage but only just.”
Candidates also have more chances of gaining admission with better grades in their O’level thus: A – 6 marks, B – 4 marks, C – 3 marks. In addition, the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores also have implications during the admission process. 180 – 200 (or 20 – 23 marks), 200 – 250 (or 24 – 33 points), 251 – 300 (or 34 – 43), 300 – 400 (or 44 – 60 points) as well as five JAMB results per point added.
The admission board informed also that a candidate with 180 – 185 gets 20 points, a candidate with 186 – 190 gets 21 points, stating further that the point system for direct entry will be released soon just as fees would still be charged for screening which has replaced the post UTME.
The statement read further: “It then comes down to the fact that fees will still be charged for screening, it depends on the school as well. “Merit contains 45 per cent of the total candidates for a particular course, catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS and staff lists contains the rest. “Cut off marks will be released by schools this year in the form of points and not marks.
If a school declares it’s cut-off mark for Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a candidate with 250 a provisional admission but his/her total points falls short of the 90 points, then he/she will lose the admission. “So, the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end in itself.” Meanwhile, the federal government has reiterated its desire to place a permanent ban on the Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME).
This much was disclosed by Malam Adamu Adamu, Nigeria’s minister of education, who confirmed that the initial ban on the exercise, stated categorically that it (the ban) takes immediate effect. According to a press statement obtained by Leadership, Adamu said he had to emphasise the ban so as to ensure that no stakeholder is left in doubt on government’s position.
