Following some of the decisions taken at the 2016 JAMB Combined Policy meeting which include the official announcement of the 2016 cut-off mark as 180 for Universities, Polytechnic and Colleges of education and the scrapping of Post-UTME, many candidates are asking a lot of questions with regard to how the admission process for this year is going to be like.Looking at the situation of things, one thing that will likely be a fall-out of this new development is the fact that the cut off-mark of top institutions like UNIBEN, UNILORIN, OAU, UI, UNILAG may rise or increased up to 220, 240 or even 250.
The responsibility of placing candidates in schools will now reside with JAMB. However, JAMB has to first confirm the requirements of institutions before placing candidates in such institution. For instance, if UNIBEN decides that its cut-off mark for this year is 250, it is only candidates who applied to study in UNIBEN and score up to 250 will secure admission.
Similarly, since the bench cut-off mark is 180, JAMB may decide to re-distribute candidates who scored up to 180 to other institutions since they happen to all have the same cut-off mark, if the institution they originally chose have reached its admission quota or if such candidates JAMB score falls below the set cut-off mark of their specific institutions. The scrapping of Post-UTME does not necessarily mean that institutions cannot conduct other forms of screening, it only means they cannot conduct another form of examination similar to UTME. So schools may decide to use oral interview or verification of documents to screen candidates.
As also reported in the Vanguard news on June 2, 2016, the Minister for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, while declaring open the meeting, he said that : since the federal government and stakeholders had confidence in the examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), there is no reason or need for other examinations to be conducted by institutions after the JAMB exam.
Seemingly, all these factors will be expected to play out when ASUU, ASUP and NCEE accept the outcome of the 2016 JAMB Combined Policy meeting. Since these bodies are yet to express their stance on this, we will only wait to see how it plays out at the end of it all.