JAMB: Over 500,000 admission slots not utilised by tertiary institutions in 2018

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says over 500,000 spaces were not utilised during the 2018 admissions in the country’s tertiary institutions.

The exam body made the disclosure in its weekly bulletin released in Abuja on Sunday.

The statistics by the board for its 2018 admissions in the country’s tertiary institutions showed a total of 1,126,025 quota for universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and innovation enterprise institutes (IEIs).

According to the bulletin, 585,498 out of the total sum were utilised, while 527,815 slots were not utilised in the 2018 admission process.

Fabian Benjamin, the board’s head of media, said the release of the official statistics became necessary in order to ensure transparency.

He also explained such would avoid misleading information being peddled about processes of the previous years.

Benjamin noted that the board hopes to utilise 80 to 90 per cent of the available spaces for the 2019/2020 admission.

He said the over 300,000 candidates, who met admission requirements, had so far been offered placements into universities for the 2019/2020 academic session.

The JAMB spokesman explained that the board’s projection for this year’s admission was to ensure that candidates utilised more available spaces, unlike in 2018 where about 40 percent of spaces were not utilised.

The board had earlier stated that it would adhere to its admission deadline.

According to JAMB, the first-choice admission for public universities, which commenced on August 21, will last till November 16.

He further stated that the deadline for private universities, which also commenced in August, will come to an end on February 15, 2020.

The board also said the second-choice admissions for public universities would commence from November 17 till December 17.