Following the rancour at the University of Lagos for the past days over admission scores, the spokesperson of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Fabian Benjamin, has said universities are allowed to go above the National admission examination cut off mark.
JAMB had announced 180 as the cut off score for admission into degree programmes and 150 for national certificate in education, national diploma and national innovation diplomas.
But explaining to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr. Benjamin said a university, depending on its peculiarities , can raise its cut off mark above the national recommendation of 180.
In the early hours of Wednesday, hundreds of Unified Matriculation Examination candidates stormed the University of Lagos to protest the decision of the institution to stop candidates from writing the forthcoming post UTME.
Many candidates with their parents gathered at the university gates as early as 7 a.m. chanting solidarity songs, demanding the removal of the JAMB registrar, Dibu Ojerinde.
Fred Enejo, a candidate, told PREMIUM TIMES that students were prevented from writing the examination to secure admission into the university.
“We were stopped at the gate simply because we got below 250 which they claim is the schools cut-off mark,” he said.
But Mr. Benjamin, explained that the University of Lagos decided that their cut off point should be 250 as a means of getting the best candidates.
“If the University of Lagos has over 25,000 students applying and they have a carrying capacity of less than 7,000 and has over 15,000 candidates that scored over 250, why will they take less than 250. It simply means the university is trying to see how they can get the best,” Mr. Benjamin said.
He said there was nothing wrong with what the universitydid as there will come a time when schools will fix cut off scores at 300.
Mr. Benjamin added that JAMB will not take anything less than what was officially announced as the cut-off score.
