Exam board warns against unjust admission processes in 2016

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cautioned tertiary institutions in Nigeria against any form of arbitrary and unjust processes during this year’s admission procession.

The registrar of the board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede said this on Friday, September 16, during his address at the Extra-Ordinary 2016 Technical Committee Meeting on Admissions into First Choice Institutions held at Baze University in Abuja.

He stated that, while institutions reserve the right to admit students, they must justly explain why other candidates were rejected.

“The institutions have the right to select (their students) but they must be able to explain if someone is not taken.”

“Universities have the right to determine the criteria for admission but the criteria must be reasonable, explicit and must have been published prior to application by the candidates.”

During his speech, Oloyede bemoaned the admission criteria of some institutions which is supposed to be universal.

“Even when you are not having candidates from other parts of the country or one reason or another, you should be able to be national no matter your proprietorship,” Oloyede said.

“A situation where you have a federal university with students from only 10 to 15 states of the federation, that shows that the institution is not justifying its existence. We are insisting that every institution must have students from every state of the federation in order to bring national cohesion, unity and students who will be global products.”

He said that, although JAMB will not be entitled to inserting students into any institution, the board would ensure that all candidates are treated fairly which is part of its role as  a referee for justice, equity and standards.

Oloyede assured that the “only difference between this year’s admissions process and what has always been the practice, is the policy that there should be no written post UTME test. All other processes remain.

“A situation where requirements that were not stated in the brochure to guide candidates suddenly become applicable during admissions exercise would be unacceptable. This is because a condition not stated in the rules cannot be effected to the detriment of law abiding applicants who applied in accordance with the institutional provisions in the brochure,” he said.