The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and stakeholders in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, yesterday, pegged the minimum cut-off mark for 2022 admission into the nation’s universities at 140 and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education.
This was disclosed at the end of the 2022 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Degree, Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) and National Diploma (ND) presided by the minister of education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, in Abuja yesterday.
JAMB’s registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who announced the cut-off marks after thorough debates and votes by vice chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, and provosts of colleges of education, said the implication is that every institution has the right to fix its own cut-off mark even up to 220 but no one would be allowed to go less than the agreed minimum marks of 100 for colleges of education, 100 for polytechnics and 140 for universities.
The JAMB registrar revealed that only 378,639 of the 1,761,338 who wrote the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) scored 200 and above.
While giving further statistics of the 2022 examination, Oloyede noted that 378,639 scored above 200; a total of 520,596 candidates scored 190 and above; 704,991 scored 180 and above; 934,103 scored 170 and above; 1,192, 057 scored 160 and above.
Speaking further, Oloyede noted that the board allowed candidates with awaiting results to register for the 2022 UTME.
“JAMB allowed awaiting results candidates to register and sit for the 2022 UTME. These candidates can’t be considered for admission on awaiting result status. They must present their O’level results on the board’s portal before the commencement of admissions,” Oloyede said.
In his opening remark, Adamu warned Nigerian tertiary institutions against illegal admissions, saying all admissions into the nation’s universities, Polytechnic and colleges of education must be processed through the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS).
The minister said any head of tertiary institution found engaging in illegal admissions would be prosecuted even if the infractions are detected after their tenures.
At the meeting, a resolution was reached that “Every institution is at liberty to determine the minimum UTME score acceptable to it for admission. Similarly, for direct entry admissions, each institution will determine the number of points required by it for direct entry admission. Nevertheless, no institution can recommend or admit any candidate with less than two points for direct entry.
“In the same vein, no institution can admit/accept the transfer of a candidate for any degree programme unless the candidate has spent on full-time, not less than two consecutive sessions in the institution.”
The meeting also resolved that “no institution will be allowed to recommend or admit any candidate whose total score is below the minimum score proposed by the institution and approved by the Policy Meeting. The totality of all scores being used for the ranking of the candidate shall be taken into account in determining the percentage minimum score.”
