Board Urges Institutions To Comply With Admission Guidelines

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned tertiary institutions against admitting lower-ranked candidates and bypassing higher-ranked ones.

The board directed the immediate reversal of such irregular admissions, warning all institutions to strictly adhere to the established guidelines governing the selection and admission of candidates.

A statement by JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin, noted that University admissions operate on a three-tier policy of Merit, Catchment Area, and Educationally Less Developed States, ELDS.

“Each tier is guided strictly by merit, such that candidates with higher rankings must be selected first, followed by others in descending order.

“Any situation in which a better-ranked candidate is skipped for a lower-ranked candidate under any of these categories will not be tolerated by the Board.”

The Board, however, dismissed a recent allegation promoted by certain individuals who habitually instigate candidates to raise unfounded issues for personal gain.

“Upon investigation, the candidate cited in the allegation, who was claimed to have scored highly but was not admitted by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), was found not to have been disadvantaged, as several higher-ranked candidates were ahead of her on the admission list.

“Consequently, her non-admission was in line with due process of not ranking high enough to be on the selected limit,” the statement read.