The Vice-Chancellor of Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State, Prof. Rotimi Ajayi, has described as ill-informed, the decision of the Senate to extend the validity of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results from one to three years.
Rather than extend the validity of the UTME results, Ajayi suggested that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board should conduct exams more than once in a year in order to boost the chances of candidates.
Ajayi, who said extending the validity of the UTME results would defeat the spirit of academic excellence among Nigerian students, said it was good that JAMB had rejected it.
The VC said this on Wednesday when he led a team from Crawford University on a courtesy visit to The Punch Place, the corporate headquarters of PUNCH Nigeria Limited along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“I hope the extension of the UTME results will not defeat the spirit of academic excellence. The Senate was not well advised. And that was why JAMB rejected it because the Senate did not carry it along. Rather than extend the validity of the UTME results, what I will suggest is that JAMB should run exams more than once in a year, may be twice or thrice to give more candidates the opportunity of getting admission,” Ajayi said.
He noted that over a million candidates who were qualified for admission in the country would not be admitted this year due to shortage of spaces in the universities.
Ajayi called for the strengthening of the government universities in terms of infrastructure and manpower as well as licensing of more private varsities.
PUNCH
