According to Vanguard, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has advised applicants who performed well on the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that admission is not certain based only on their marks. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
The Board’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said that admittance is dependent on the minimum scores established by departments and individual institutions.
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television, Benjamin stressed the importance of understanding the purpose of the examination before analyzing its results. He clarified that the UTME is a selection exercise, not a pass-fail examination, and admission decisions are made based on various factors beyond just the raw score.
The JAMB spokesman said, “If you look at the statistics that we keep reeling out and discussing out there, you will discover that a reasonable number of these candidates score less than 200 and above. They have not really failed this examination because it depends on what you want to do with such an exercise.
“Our examination, just as I’ve said earlier, is a selection exercise. You can only say a candidate has failed if, in the final analysis, the purpose of such an examination is not achieved.”
Benjamin stated that while candidates scoring below 200 may not be considered failures depending on their chosen field of study, even candidates with scores exceeding 300 may face challenges in securing admission. Factors such as the candidate’s chosen institution, program popularity, and available capacity all influence admission decisions.
He stated, “I will give you an example. We want to celebrate candidates who have scored 300 or above. And I want to shock you by saying that there are some of them who may not even be admitted with that high score, depending on where they want to go, while some candidates who have scored less than 200 will end up succeeding and being admitted.
“For instance, if I want to read physics today and I have 180 or 200, I may likely gain admission, while somebody who wants to read medicine, for instance, has 320, but he may not be admitted. Because if you want to go to the University of Lagos with 320, on the ranking order of the University of Lagos, you may be number 300.”
Benjamin emphasized that admission outcomes are influenced by the demand for specific programs and the capacity of the institution.
“Also, maybe the current capacity for that program is1 just around 200. So it depends on the subscription to the program that you are aspiring to go to. It depends on the university to which you want to go. It depends on the tertiary institution, whether it’s a polytechnic or a college of education,” he said. CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
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