JAMB: No space for 340,000 successful UTME candidates

About 340,000 out of the 867, 000 candidates who met the 180 cut-off point in the recent Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination will not be admitted into any of the nation’s tertiary institutions this year, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation has said.

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, told journalists on Tuesday in Kaduna, Kaduna State, that the nations’ tertiary institutions could not absorb all the candidates because of “limited spaces.”

Ojerinde, who described admission into tertiary institutions this year as a “survival of the fittest,” stated that the space available for prospective students was about 527,000.

He also disclosed that most of the candidates did not choose many of the the privately-owned universities because of high tuition.

The JAMB Registrar told journalists during the technical committee meeting on admission to degree-awarding institutions that except access to tertiary institutions was increased, “we will continue to have a lot of people waiting endlessly for admission.”

He added that the meeting, attended also by representatives of most of the higher institutions of learning in the country, was held to select the first set of candidates into the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

Ojerinde explained further that the chairman and secretary of the committee would meet on the admission lists to decide whether the candidates had met the set criteria for admission or not.

He said that once the candidates had met the set criteria, the names of such candidate would be displayed on the JAMB website and those of the universities, polytechnics and COEs chosen by them.

Ojerinde said, “With this 180 cut-off point, we have about 867,000 candidates who made 180 and above, and yet the available space is just about 527,000.

“So, the remaining 340,000 candidates will have no place to go. That is the point, except access to tertiary institutions is increased; we will continue to have lots of people waiting endlessly for admission.

“One of the beauties of this UTME is that we have brought them together and we are saying that they can go to any institution. If the university doesn’t work, college of education may work; if not, polytechnics or monotechnics may work.

“But I am not saying that it is to be for everybody because the space available is still not sufficient.”

The JAMB registrar also said that some of the candidates who failed to secure admission into their preferred institutions would be distributed to schools that had fewer number of applicants.

He, however, added that the University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ahmadu Bello University, Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic had the highest number of candidates seeking admissions.

Ojerinde said, “The schools without candidates to admit are mostly private institutions, but by the time candidates discover that they don’t have any other place to go, they will go to these private institutions because it is a matter of setting your priority right.

“I can’t give the names of these institutions now; they are so many. Some of them don’t have any candidate. The Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu is one of them. Mohammed Goni College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Maiduguri has only 13 candidates.

“Admission is not automatic because the space is not sufficient. You have to try again next time if you don’t get admitted this year. It is the survival of the fittest.”