2019 UTME: Seven schools that violated admission process

At least seven universities used their institutions portal to violate the admission process in the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said.

The board said the seven institutions “were warehousing candidates into institutions’ portals”.

Warehousing means when the candidate’s name is not on the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) but the institution still goes ahead to admit them through its web portal.

The institutions include Adekunle Ajasin University, University of Nigeria, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, University of Ibadan, Air Force Institute of Technology, Ahmadu Bello University, and Nigeria Police Academy.

CAPS

The board which is a regulatory body has mandated that all admission process should be done on the CAPS.

CAPS is a platform created to ensure quality control, transparency, and credibility of the admission process.

CAPS is expected to make provision for a ‘market place’ in the JAMB portal where institutions can go and “request for students in Nigeria who scored above their cut off points.”

The system is such that institutions can only admit those who meet their cut off points. If a candidate fails to meet the cut off mark that student would certainly be denied admission irrespective of the candidate’s connection.

In JAMB’s 2020 policy meeting document seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the board said appropriate caution was given to the institutions to desist from such illegitimate actions.

“Any such act will henceforth be visited with appropriate sanctions and the board shall continue to protect the rights of all candidates to be given their due irrespective of their social status,” the board said.

According to the regulatory agency, “these tricks which are meant to usurp the rights of the candidates are improper and should be discontinued”.

“All institutions employing such tricks are putting into jeopardy the future of the illegitimately favoured and less qualified candidates as the board will not condone or regularised such admissions,” the board said.

Violations

Adekunle Ajasin University.

The document cited an example of Adamolekun Bernice who applied to study Law with 280 marks to the University of Benin but was later offered Law at Adekunle Ajasin University.

“A candidate not available at all in CAPS under AAUA but now offered admission and acceptance fee paid before the protest and cannot be properly admitted into AAUA,” the board said.

University of Nigeria.

The document also showed that the University of Nigeria has a quota of 200 to admit students to study Medicine.

“After admitting 106 on CAPS, the University of Nigeria released an additional 448 names on the university’s portal whereas there are 342 qualified unadmitted on CAPS,” the board said.

Also for Law, JAMB said the university violated the admission process.

“The quota for Law is 250. The university admitted 125 on CAPS. The university then released another 240 on their portal,” the board said

Moshood Abiola Polytechnic

The board said the institution did not admit a single candidate on CAPS.

“MAPOLY admitted over 10,795 and went on to receive acceptance fee from 5,950 candidates not yet proposed to JAMB. MAPOLY also claimed its quota is 12,587,” the board said.

University of Ibadan

The board said a candidate, Sanni Abdul Rahman, who applied to the University of Ibadan got Economics on CAPS “but changed to Adult Education on the university portal”.

The regulatory body also complained that another candidate who applied for human nutrition and scored 242 in UTME, 72 in Post-UTME with an aggregate score of 66.25 was transferred to study agricultural extention.

“University then admitted people below her into Human Nutrition,” JAMB said.

Airforce Institute of Technology

The board also said a candidate, Musa Ishaq, who applied for Cybersecurity was moved to Physics on the school portal.

“He innocently changed his programme to Physics whereas he is qualified for Cybersecurity,” JAMB said.

Ahmadu Bello University

The board said a candidate, Thomas Goodness Shekwobyalo, who scored 302 and was qualified to study Medicine claimed “to be persuaded to change to Anatomy on the university portal”.

The board, however, said the university refuted the claim.

Nigeria Police Academy

The board said the Nigeria Police Academy “changed the programme of candidates through the academy portal without the consent of the candidates”.

The board also said the institution admitted candidates “who were already admitted genuinely into other institutions through CAPS and could not upload them on CAPS again”.

The board also published litigation letters against University of Nigeria, Police Academy, and the University of Abuja

Every year, millions of students seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions write JAMB-conducted tests.

The candidates complete four subjects, with the English Language compulsory for all applicants.

The remaining three subjects depend on the courses respective candidates apply to study. Scores for the four subjects are marked to 400 aggregate.

The score will determine if the candidate is qualified to get admission into a university of choice.

SOURCE: PREMIUM TIMES