The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has urged universities to desist from issuing admission letters to candidates seeking admission into their various institutions, saying it is not within their mandate to do so.
The Registrar, Prof. Segun Aina, stated this when he received a delegation from Veritas University, Bwari, Abuja, which paid him a courtesy visit at JAMB’s headquarters.
According to the Registrar, JAMB is the only body statutorily-empowered to issue official admission letters to candidates seeking entry into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria, including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Prof. Aina stated that the irony of the situation is that once candidates see a document as emanating from an institution purporting to offer them admission, they believe that such is real.
He, therefore, charged universities guilty of this act to desist, adding that they also have the responsibility of ensuring that those candidates obtain the right documents from the board.
He recalled that the Federal Ministry of Education had explicitly mandated that all admissions be conducted through the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) and that anything done contrary to that is illegal and invalid. As a consequence, no institution is permitted to substitute its own letters for the official JAMB admission letter issued by the board after a candidate has accepted his admission on CAPS.
He added that it is only admission offered through this platform that is recognised and would be accepted for the purpose of mobilisation for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), among others.
A statement by JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, said the visiting Veritas University vice chancellor, Professor Hyacinth Ichoku, told the JAMB registrar that more consideration should be given to private institutions, as most candidates apply to public universities as first choice before changing to private if they fail to secure admission.
Professor Ichoku also used the Opportunity to inform the registrar that the federal government has endorsed the use of Veritas University campus, Bwari as host of the Pan-African universities debating championship, expected to host over one thousand participant from universities across Africa.
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(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
