We Admit NOT Less than 60% of Qualified Candidates Yearly - JAMB

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Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB Speaks on the Reality of Admission Statistics Each Year - We Admit Not Less than Sixty Percent of Qualified Students Every Year.

For years, the public has been fed with the erroneous narrative that over 50% of the total number of candidates that yearly apply for admission into the nation's tertiary institutions are not admitted.

Unfortunately, this view was also reiterated by the editorial of a major newspaper where it stated that “Every year, the entrance examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) records over a million candidates out of which barely 20% can't get admitted”...

This is wrong and misleading especially when it is coming from sources that are supposed to be very informed. The truth is that, admissions can only be given to qualified candidates, hence any figure being bandied around should equally be based on the total number of candidates who applied and are qualified. It will be an unfortunate postulation if the candidates who do not have any basis to be considered for admission to any tier of the nation's tertiary institutions are also included in the final tabulation of candidates not admitted.

Given this scenario, it will be absurd for any narrative to assume huge admission backlogs without first considering whether the candidates that are not admitted are actually qualified for the course they applied for.

Consequently, based on the 2018 admission reports, it could be clearly seen that what some analysts put forth as the total number of candidates not admitted is far from the truth.

For instance, in 2018, a total of 1, 793, 018 candidates applied for admission into the various academic programmes of 849 institutions (Degree, ND, NCE and IEls) with 140,020 applying through the Direct Entry Mode.

On categorizing the candidates according to UTME scores and O'level Credit passes, it was discovered that just 1,245,939 scored 100 and above out off 400 obtainable marks in the UTME and had five O'level Credits. Besides, 1,211,081 candidates scored 140 and above with five O' level Credits.

Mean while, the summary of the above clearly indicates that out of the 1,793,018 candidates that applied for admission in 2018 only 1,200,748 candidates scored 100 and above and possessed the five O'level Credit requirements for admission, that is five Credits in addition to Mathematics and English Language.

The 100 cut- off mark in UTME is not an admittable score for most institutions apart from the Innovative Enterprise Institutions which award the National Innovative Diploma.

To be considered for admission into most of the nation's higher institutions, a score of at least 140 and above would be required. Based on this consideration, only 1,168,948 candidates had five O'level Credits in Mathematics and English Language and also scored 140 and above in their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

It is this category of candidates that were recommended by the institutions for admission out of which the Board has approved the admission of 570, 089 candidates into various tiers of the nation's tertiary institutions.

Also, consideration has to be given to candidates who have preferences for certain programmes and who would not accept any admission if not given in respect of those programmes.

This class of candidates constitutes a reasonable number of those qualified but not admitted. Sometimes, considerations are given to these set of candidates to be admitted into programmes that have vacancies even after falling short of the admission requirements for their preferred programmes, yet they remain adamant.

It is important to note that at no time in the history of the Board has the Board admitted less than 60% of the total number of candidates qualified for admissions in any given year.

As such, the hues and cries over the number of candidates not admitted are misplaced as even at the close of the admissions exercise, there would still be programmes with vacancies.