The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has described the term, ‘cut-off mark’ as used in Nigeria, as misleading, and a misnomer, stressing that each tertiary institution sets its own Realistic Institutional Admittable Minimum UTME Scores (RIAMUS).
Prof. Oloyede gave this insight during the 2023 Policy Meeting on Admissions to tertiary institutions in Nigeria, held at Andrews Otutu Obaseki Auditorium, National Judicial Institute, Abuja, on Saturday, 24th June, 2023.
According to the Registrar, the term ‘cut-off mark’ is misleading as there is no unified national cut-off mark, rather what is obtainable is the Realistic Institutional Admittable Minimum UTME Scores (RIAMUS), which is the minimum score that the Senate/Academic Board of each institution has approved for the purpose of admission of its students.
Prof. Oloyede, however, stated that no institution can go below its own self-set RIAMUS and no other institution could use the RIAMUS of another for the purpose of its own admissions because the score is institution-specific.
Furthermore, the JAMB helmsman disclosed that UTME score does not single-handedly guarantee any candidate admissions to tertiary institutions in the country, as it is only one of the criteria among many others such as five credit passes in five relevant O’ level subjects, O’ level subjects grading, post-UTME score and 60:40 Science:Arts ratio, among other criteria as defined by the proprietors of the institutions.
In the same vein, the Registrar stated that the National Tolerable Minimum UTME Score (NTMUS) is the score below which no institution in the country will consider any candidate for admission. This, he said, is usually decided at the Policy Meeting not by individual institutions. He, therefore, said that the NTMUS of 140 for universities, 120 for Polytechnics and 100 for Colleges of Education arrived at by participants does not mean that an institution with RIAMUS of 200 must admit a candidate on the basis of NTMUS of 140; 120; 100 as the RIAMUS might be equal or higher than the NTMUS.
On the NTMUS for the 2023 Admission exercise, the Policy Meeting resolved on 140 as the minimum score for admissions into universities and 120 and 100 respectively for admissions into both Polytechnics and Colleges of Education nationwide.
The National Tolerable Minimum UTME Scores of 140 for universities, 120 for Polytechnics and 100 for Colleges of Education were arrived at at the 2023 Policy Meeting on Admissions to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Culled from JAMBulletin – 26-06-2023
