UTME candidates at Computer Based Test Centre (File photo)

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB on Tuesday announced minimum cut off marks for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.

JAMB fixed the minimum cut off marks for admissions into universities in Nigeria at 120, polytechnics and colleges of education at 100, while that of innovative enterprising institutes was pegged at 110.

The Board however said institutions are free to raise their cut off marks for admission above the set minimum.

In the same vein, JAMB also said admissions into public degree awarding institutions for the 2017 UTME examination will end on January 15, 2018 while for private institutions; it ends on January 31, 2018.

The Board also said decisions on first choice candidates by universities will end on October 15, and second choice candidates will end on December 15; after which the remaining students will be available in the market place for other institutions till the January closing dates.

These decisions were announced after the 2017 Combined Policy Meetings on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria held in Abuja which ended on Tuesday.

JAMB Registrar,  Ishaq Oloyede told journalists that Central Admission Processing System, CAPS, will be used to streamline admission processes among institutions to overcome problems associated with the former method in this year’s admission process.

He added that institutions could conduct dual mode system which involves both manual and the newly introduced CAPS.

“All over the world, there is agitation for dynamic educational policy,” he said. “JAMB only admits for National Diploma, not Higher National Diploma; so why should we use the same requirement for ND and BSC, that is unreasonable parity.”

“We should not be sentimental in fixing our cut off mark; we need not over-dramatise issue of cut off mark.”

The JAMB Registrar also revealed that application to study agriculture was very low while applications to study medicine and health sciences increased in this year’s UTME.

He added that the Registrar of JAMB must now approve all candidates.

“About 17,160 students were admitted without JAMB across institutions in Nigeria,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, also announced a lift of the ban on the conduct of Post-UTME examination as a prerequisite for admission into tertiary institutions at the event.

According to him, the cancellation of Post- UTME is a mistake as it led to a lot of irregularities by candidates and some institutions.

He however said while institutions are now at liberty to conduct POST –UTME exams, the fee for the examination should not exceed N2000.