JAMB: Vice-chancellors break silence on 140 benchmark for varsity admission

The Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNUs) has broken its silence on the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) recently announced 140 cut-off mark for admission into universities, insisting each institution will determine candidates to admit.

Yakubu Ochefu, secretary-general of CVCNUs disclosed that the 140 cut-of benchmark for admission was only a minimum score set by JAMB to serve as a guide for all Nigerian universities and it does so together with other stakeholders.

Ochefu said it was impossible for candidates with 140 scores to gain admission into some universities. He maintained that each university will determine who qualifies for admission from the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates who chose their institution and not JAMB.

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“JAMB’s 140 cut-off simply provides a window of opportunity for universities and courses that are less attractive to draw students.

This is why it is impossible for candidates with such low scores and even 200 to gain admission into some universities, particularly the top-rated ones, notwithstanding their chosen courses,” he noted.

In addition, he said; “Even a 200 score in some universities is for courses that are considered non-attractive. The heavily subscribed ones such as Law and Medicine will require very high scores.

So, the JAMB’s 140 general cut-off mark is just a guide, each university and particularly courses of study will determine the chances of candidates to qualify for admission.”

Recall that JAMB had on Saturday, June 24 announced 100 and 140 as the cut-off marks for 2022/23 admissions into polytechnics and universities across the country.

Is-haq Oloyede, registrar and chief executive officer at JAMB announced the approval during the 2023 policy meeting on admissions to tertiary institutions and awards held in Abuja.

Fabian Benjamin, head of public affairs and protocol at JAMB explained that the board does not and had never determined any uniform national Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores otherwise known as cut-off marks for any tertiary institution.