JAMB ANNOUNCES ITS GUIDELINES FOR UNIVERSITY ADMISSION PROCESS.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Monday announced its guidelines for admission process.

Its announcement through its website followed a week long meeting with universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.

According to the board, the modalities would be based on point system.

The board, which explained   how the admission process would work for JAMB candidates and direct-entry applicants, also stated that varsities would collect screening fees from candidates at the end of admission process.

According to the board, the new method uses a point system, which is divided into other processes, that is easy to understand.

“Before a candidate can be considered for screening, he/she must have been given provisional admission by JAMB. The JAMB admission checker portal is going to be opened soon for this process, so praying is all you can do now,” the statement on JAMB’s website said.

The second process, the board said, was the point system where admission would depend on the point tally of the candidate.

It said: “JAMB’s provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally will decide your faith.

“The points are evenly spread out between your O’level and JAMB results to provide a level playing field for all.

“In the first case, any candidate who submits only one result which contains his/her relevant subjects already has 10 points, the exam could be NECO, WAEC, GCE etc, but any candidate who has two sittings only gets two points. So, this means that aspirants with only one result are at an advantage but only just.”

The board explained that the next point grades fell into the O’level grades where each grade has it’s equivalent point;  A6 marks, B4 marks, C3 marks. So, the better the candidate’s grades, the better his/her  chances of securing admission this year.

The next point is the UTME scores where each score range has its equivalent point which can be summarised thus: 180 – 200 (or 20 – 23 marks); 200 – 250 (or 24 – 33 points); 251 – 300 (or 34 – 43); 300 – 400 (or 44 – 60 points).

Giving a breakdown, JAMB explained that each categories contains five JAMB results per point added.

For instance, a candidate with 180 – 185 gets 20 points, a candidate with 186 – 190 gets 21 points, adding that the point system for direct entry will be released soon.

The board stated that fees would still be charged for screening which has replaced the Post UTME.

“It then comes down to the fact that fees will still be charged for screening, it depends on the school as well,” the statement said.

It also disclosed that catchment and ELDS will still be used!

“Merit contains 45 per cent of the total candidates for a particular course, catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS and staff lists contains the rest.

“Cut off marks will be released by schools this year in the form of points and not marks. If a school declares it’s cut-off mark for Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a candidate with 250 a provisional admission but his/her total points falls short of the 90 points, then he/she will lose the admission. So, the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end in itself,” the statement added.

Isaac Nobenz