Why candidates with high UTME scores fail to secure admission

The media space was awash last week with revelations during the yearly Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) National Policy meeting where the requisite scores for admission are agreed upon.

The process usually starts with all institutions submitting their required scores, after which the heads of the institutions, which include vice chancellors, rectors, provosts, registrars and admission officers, meet to decide the admissible score.

This year, the minimum mark was pegged at 140 for universities, 100 for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education same as that of 2023.

Agreeing on the admissible score, however, did not generate much argument as it was swiftly decided upon with little objection from some quarters. However, the first disagreement was when the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, insisted that the entry age into tertiary institution was 18 years.

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The stakeholders rejected the submission, saying that students who already wrote the UTME and have their O’level results should not be denied admission. This, however, got the nod of Prof. Mamman, who said 16-year-olds should be admitted for 2024 but that the law stands as from next year.

During his presentation, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, discredited the notion that admissions were given by JAMB, explaining that admission depended on the availability of candidates’ five O’level requirements as UTME was only meant for admission ranking.

Oloyode also revealed that several Nigerian universities have been accepting students as young as 10 years old, which violates the provision of the National education policy.

Citing a case of underage admission, he said a candidate applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany and then applied for the EU Erasmus Scholarship programme for a postgraduate scholarship.

“The country found it strange that a candidate was born in 2007 and on her passport, she started university when she was 12 years old. The selection committee contacted Nigeria to confirm if indeed the candidate studied at the university and graduated at the age of 15 in Nigeria,” he said.

The JAMB registrar, however, believed that they would tighten the issue in years to come and graduates of Nigerian universities will not have to suffer one humiliation or the other.

On the admission process, the JAMB boss, explained that institutions have the liberty to determine their cut-off points but they must not be below the mark agreed at the policy meeting as the collective decision of all heads of tertiary institutions both private and public.

He pointed out that the 2023 admission process, which is still ongoing, has shown that there are candidates who have high scores but have yet to get admission into any tertiary institution.

Statistics of admission based on performance

In his presentation on the 2023 Admission Exercise, he said from over 1,635,881 applications for UTME and Direct Entry, only 639,263 candidates have been admitted into tertiary institutions across the country as of July 10, 2024.

Though the admission exercise is still ongoing, 639,263 candidates have so far gained admission as against the 693,398 total number of admissions in 2022.

The breakdown of the data presented showed that 1,635,881 candidates who sat for UTME and applied for DE are seeking admission into tertiary institutions, out of which DE has 47,024, and 23,144 have so far been admitted.

For those who sat for the UTME and scored 100+ are 1,514, 455 and those who scored 140 and above are 1,462,311.

The analysis of the data showed that candidates with five O’ Level credits and scored 100+ plus DE, are 980,914 while those with five O’ Level credits with 100+ including English & Maths plus DE candidates are 956,316 and those with  5 O’ Level credits and scored 140+ and above  including English & Maths plus DE are 940,786.

The breakdown of the 2023 UTME performance of the admitted candidates by score showed that candidates who scored 300 and above have 5,261 applicants with only 3,988 (49 per cent) having been admitted so far.

For those who scored between 250 and 299, 50,883 candidates applied and 32,558 (64 per cent) have been admitted so far.

Candidates with 200 to 249 scores have 296,909 applicants and 158,155 (53 per cent) were admitted.

For 160 to 199 scorers, 790,320 applications were recorded and 315,367 (40 per cent) were admitted.

Those who scored 140 to 159, have 319,125 applications and 89,355 (28 per cent) candidates have been admitted so far.

While those who scored from 120 to 139 have 50,081 applications and only 7,920 candidates (16 per cent) were admitted, those with 100 to 119 have applications of which 2,074 and 189 (9 per cent) have been admitted.

Also, the data showed admission based on institutions, with degrees having  861,934 quota but so far only 498,193 have been admitted, meaning it left 363,741 unused slots.

For NCE, it has a quota of 506,755 but so far only 21,470 candidates admitted leaving 485,285 unused slots.

ND has a total of 227,242 quota and 119,007 candidates have so far been admitted leaving a total of 108,235 slots

For NID, 25,100 is the quota but only 593 have been admitted so far, leaving 24,507 unused slots.

Meanwhile, a further breakdown of the statistics showed that 158,354 candidates who have high scores are yet to be admitted.

According to the breakdown, out of the 5,261candidates who scored 300 and above, 1,273 have not been admitted into any institution, while out of 9,437 who scored 280 and above, 2,928 are yet to be admitted.

Also, out of 41,446 who scored 250 and above, 15,399 have not been admitted and out of 296,909 candidates who scored 200 and above, 138,754 are yet to gain admission.

Why candidates fail to secure admission

While making his presentation, JAMB’s Prof. Oloyode said the admission process was ongoing but that there were some reasons why some candidates failed to secure admission.

He said the reasons for percentage of unadmitted candidates include rigidity of programme choice (MBBS, B.Sc Nursing, Law, etc), as many students prefer to study high-flying courses which in most cases have high number of applicants as well as high score requirement and failure to get that, they will refuse other offers.

However, MBBS, Engineering and Sciences have the highest demands from those yet to be admitted.

He further listed mismatch of demand and supply, lack of interest (demand) for existing vacancies (NCE, Education, Agric and Basic Sciences) as another reason, saying that many candidates would not accept admission from other institutions outside their choice even when there are existing vacancies.

Another reason is trial-candidates (no O’Level/Awaiting Results), those who decided to write UTME before their SSCE to assess their knowledge and those whose results are yet to be released when the admission is going on.

Others include wrong O’ Level subject combination, low (Post UTME) screening score but inordinate dream of programme, UTME-combination deficiency, non-acceptance of offer due to rigidity, absent from POST UTME Screening and mismatch of catchment institutions.

Experts speak

Some experts have submitted that efforts should be made to ensure candidates who have the required admissible marks and O’Level gain admission to stop them from occupying spaces for those who will write the next UTME.

A teacher, Sophia Emmanuel said, “The minimum scores have been watered down to give room for more access to higher education yet, every year, we have half of the candidates not being admitted into any institution, meaning they will be candidates for the next one and thus occupy the space that fresh students should take.

She said irrespective of the reasons for them not gaining admission, which may be the university exhausting its quota or the failure of the student to gain his or her desired course, there should be a process where those with high scores can try again with their results.

“It is high time we looked beyond university education and explore polytechnics and Colleges of Education, where students who failed to gain admission into university can go to and maybe later transit to university. That way, we will have less number of candidates not admitted,” she said.

An educationist, Oluwabunmi Anani, told Daily Trust that the JAMB cut-off mark is dictated by the general performance of candidates, need to encourage or peg admissions and the general decline in the standard of education as reflected in poor results, catchment area considerations, etc.

She said they should stop encouraging mediocrity and laziness. “It is killing our structure as a people! Let’s begin by putting an end to disparities in cut off marks! If the general cut off mark as we used to know it was 200, why should it drop to 140? Yet, we complain of falling standards?”