UTME: VICE CHANCELLORS SET TO PROVE CASE BEFORE SENATE
The umbrella body of the Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities is making moves to ensure that the Senate does not prevent universities from conducting post-Universal Tertiary Matriculation Test (UTME).
The Chairman of the Association of Vice chancellors of Nigeria Universities (AVNU) and Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Professor Ish-aq Oloyede while reacting to the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly's plan to put an end to such test by the universities, said that the association had forwarded a letter to the senate on the matter.
The VC disclosed this even as he said President Goodluck Jonathan would be in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Saturday this week to commission some of the projects of the university as part of the activities marking the 27th convocation of the institution.
He said a total of 5,330 graduands would be awarded degrees/diploma certificates on Monday and Tuesday October 24 and 25.
Oloyede who spoke with newsmen shortly after addressing them on activities lined up for the 27th convocation, said that Vice chancellors had requested the senate to hear their own side of the story before taking a final decision on the post-UTME test.
He expressed the hope that federal lawmakers would not be misled into taking decisions for states and private universities, considering the tripod nature of the Nigerian university system.
The VC insisted that the Act establishing every university in the country empowers them to admit their students, stressing that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established primarily to harmonise the admission exercise.
He added, 'Universities must not be stopped from screening their candidates and determining their competence. Experience had shown that other people sat for JAMB exams for candidates. For instance through our post-UTME we caught more than eight candidates who confessed that they were not the ones that wrote their JAMB exams.'
'The eight candidates that were apprehended scored 270, 280 in the UME exams but we have discovered through the post-UTME screening that they did not actually sat for JAMB on their own,' he added.
Oloyede disclosed that the university in collaboration with Cape Peninsular University of Technology would soon establish an international herbal research centre to be located at the university, adding that the institution partnership with the Virginia State University, USA has led to the joint establishment of the centre for human capacity development.
He that the 'university produced 80 post-graduate diploma, 399 master's, 69 professional post-graduates and 72 doctoral graduands during the year.'