Abuja—Heads of universities on Saturday adopted 140 as the minimum cut – off mark for 2023 admission.
The decision was reached at the 2023 policy meeting on admission guidelines organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Saturday in Abuja.
During the meeting, Registrars of universities agreed that no university, except 15 private universities who picked 130 – 120, should go below the 140 marks adopted.
Rectors of polytechnics adopted 100 as the minimum cut – off mark for admission.
Also, 100 was adopted as the minimum point for admission into colleges.
The decision was adopted by the Provost of colleges at the meeting.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said institutions would not be allowed to go below the minimum points they have adopted for admission into programmes in their schools.
The meeting agreed that students should not be cut off from admission as a result of their UTME score.
It was agreed that students be allowed to take part in all the admission processes, with total score added before a decision on admission is taken.
Meanwhile, JAMB has said that 557,626 candidates from 1.8 million applications have been admitted into tertiary institutions across the country in its 2022 admission processes.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede disclosed this yesterday while speaking at the 2023 Policy Meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions in Abuja, the Nation newspaper reports.
According to him, the 2022 admission process was still ongoing owing to opportunities given to some key players in the sector to conduct admissions.
He named Nkechinyere Umeh from Anambra State as the best candidate in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) with a cumulative mark of 360.
As at June 19, Oloyede said, tertiary institutions have admitted 557,626 candidates but “as we speak today, the admission is up to 600,000 as we target about 700,000. This is because admission is still ongoing,” he said.
Speaking on gaps in admission vacancies and why candidates were not admitted, Oloyede said rigidity of programme choice and mismatch of demand and supply were responsible.
He also listed lack of interest for existing vacancies and trail-candidates (No o’level results or awaiting results) as responsible for admission gaps in the tertiary institutions.
He said it is the responsibility of the various institutions to determine the National Minimum Tolerable UTME score, often called the ‘cut-off marks’.
Board considers use of personal devices for UTME
A new policy to allow UTME candidates write the examinations with their personal phones and other devices is being considered by JAMB, the Registrar said.
The proposed policy, Oloyede said, was based on the rising cost of logistics in taking the UTME nationwide.
According to him, it cost the JAMB over N1.2billion to equip a Computer Based Test (CBT) centre in Kaduna State with much of the money spent on procuring computers for use by candidates .
“The policy which falls under the ‘Bring Your Own Device’ may require candidates wishing to take UTME in the future to bring their own devices to the examination hall,” he said.
At the policy meeting, the registrar expressed concern over the crave for university education among candidates at the detriment of polytechnics and colleges of education.
