JAMB Warns Institution Against Arbitrary Admission Process

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Friday, warned all tertiary institutions in the country not to be arbitrary in their cireria for the 2016/2017-admission process. JAMB Registrar,

Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said this yesterday in Abuja during the Extra Ordinary Technical committee Meeting on 2016 Admissions. According to him: "In the course of the First (1st) Technical Meeting, it was observed that some institutions were brazenly arbitrary in their criteria for admission.  He noted that as a referee, the Board would resist such arbitrariness and illegal introduction of extraneous factors which were not contained in the published advertisement made available to the candidates.

Prof. Oloyede who disclosed that the meeting was for the placement of suitably qualified candidates into tertiary institutions, urged them to follow due process in the Admission Processes. "We will not accept whatever is done arbitrarily. I hope those that are here will make adjustment, They must be able to explain why somebody with high score was not given admissions" " What we are saying is that people should follow due process, universities have the right to have criteria for admission but the criteria must be reasonable, the criteria must be explicit

He stressed that ths Board will not initiate or insert any candidates but will ensure that no candidate is unjustly treated by any institutions. "I therefore restate my earlier submission that the Senate and academic boards of the institutions have the primary responsibility of recommending candidates to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for admissions" Oloyede added that the only difference between the 2016 admissions process and what has always been the practice, is the policy that there shouldbe no writtenpost UTME test.

He hinted that the first batch of the 2016 admissions will be out before third week of September. "What we said was that some of the recommedation the institutions brought earlier were not explicit interms of criteria, And we have ásked our colleagues in the universities to send better criterias " "i have a particular school where the person who score the highest was not taken and the reason was because the university changed it rules. That will not be accepted"

"You cannot change the rules when the game is on. You have to wait till 2017 to publish the new rules you cannot have a particular rule and changed to another"

The Registrar restated that Jamb would work with all stakeholders to smoothen all processes. "Where things are not done properly we wil not be only doing what is right but wewill be seen by reasonable people that we have done what is right" Speaking on Carrying Capacities of schools, Oloyede said the issie remains a national problem, he cited instances where institutions admitt students over shooting their capacities. "i think its a national problem where people over shoot their carrying capacity that will certainly be against the rules and it will affect quality of students" "Only few institutions are admitting below carrying capacity due to certain issues" "What we have said is that if they are qualified candidates in your list and i dont know why they are.