The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday revealed that 569,395 of the 1.7 million candidates that wrote this year’s UTME scored over 200 marks, as it announced cut-off marks for the different categories of higher institutions in the country.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this at the policy meeting of the stakeholders of Tertiary Institutions in Abuja attended by representatives from both public and private tertiary institutions.

He stated that 23.8 per cent of the total number of candidates who sat for the exam scored below 160 marks.

Prof Oloyede revealed that the stakeholders unanimously agreed that the cut-off mark for University will be 120.

The stakeholders also agreed to peg that of Polytechnic at 100, College of Education at 100, while the National Innovative Enterprise Institution was placed at 110, the registrar disclosed.

Other decisions included the timelines for ‘first choice’ admission which was set for October 15, while that of ‘second choice’ was slated for December 15.

While stating that no candidate without O’ Level prerequisite would be offered admission, Prof Oloyede urged the heads of the various tertiary institutions to set their modalities for admission exercises as it was not the board’s responsibility.

The registrar also appealed to heads of institutions not to charge more than N2,000 for admission processes.

He said, “JAMB has a Central Admissions Processing System to aid you on the admission exercises.

“CAPS will not replace admission processes of institutions. It will enable institutions to simply communicate with JAMB in a more dynamic and timely manner.

“ It will also allow for flexible cut-off marks and candidates are allowed to make their choice of institution and course’’.

In his remarks, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, commended the board for conducting the UTME, and advised heads of institutions to select qualified candidates in a transparent and flexible manner.

“We restate our commitment to ensure expansion of access to students in our institutions

“To ensure equity in regard to rural and urban areas; we are committed to refocusing our curricular to meet our development need,’’ he added.