Varsities fix UTME cut-off marks – JAMB

Maryam Abeeb, Abuja

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board on Monday said the cut-off mark for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates was arrived at after a deliberation with all higher institutions in the country.
The organisation also said candidates with a score less than 200 in the 2020 UTME should not expect admission to Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Ibadan, Covenant University, University of Lagos and University of Benin.
JAMB also said no candidate with a UTME score of 209 could be considered for admission into any programme at the Pan Atlantic University, which had fixed its minimum UTME score at 210.
The spokesperson of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said this on Monday in a statement titled, ‘No uniform UTME minimum score for admission,’ in Abuja.
He said, “For long, many candidates and some members of the general public have come under erroneous impression that there is a minimum national UTME score, which they also refer to as cut -off point.
“The truth is that there is no one particular national minimum UTME score for all universities, polytechnics or colleges of education in Nigeria. It has never been. Similarly, in most cases, UTME score is not the sole determinant of placement of candidates into tertiary institutions.
Benjamin said decisions at the annual policy meeting on admission did not reduce the minimum prescription of the institutions except the few institutions which submitted minimum UTME scores that fell below what the policy meeting considers as the minimum score acceptable.
JAMB said, “For the 2020 admission exercise, for example, no candidate with a UTME score of 209 can be considered for admission into any programme at PAU whose minimum UTME score is 210.
“Also, no candidate with a UTME score of 199 can be admitted into any of the following universities whose minimum score is 200: OAU, UI, CU, UNILAG and UNIBEN.
“No candidate with a score less than 180 can be admitted into many of the universities including Lagos State University (190); Afe Babalola University (180), Nigerian Army University, Biu (180); University of Jos (180), University of Abuja (180), Redeemers University (180), University of Ilorin (180), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (180), Bayero University Kano (180), Alex Ekwueme University (180) and PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt (180).”