As the deadline for the 2022 admissions by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board comes to a close, universities with outstanding admissions will work towards a merger, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.
JAMB had during the 2022 policy meeting held in Abuja fixed the deadline of December 31,2022 for the conduct of the 2022/2023 admissions.
Stakeholders at the meeting had cited the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities as a determining factor.
Saturday PUNCH had recently reported that no fewer than 400,000 admission quotas were not utilised by universities during the 2021/2022 admission session; data from JAMB also revealed that there were lots of outstanding admissions from the 2020/2021 session.
Commenting on the development, JAMB noted that majority of the universities suspended admission processes due to incessant strikes.
Speaking with our correspondent on the backlog of admissions, the Secretary-General of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof Yakubu Ochefu, said, “Yes, the admissions will be merged.”
ASUU had on Monday, February 14, 2022 embarked on a strike.
The union had blamed the failure of the government to meet its demands that led to the suspension of the 2020 strike.
Some of the demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities; release of earned allowances for lecturers; renegotiations of the ASUU/FG 2009 agreement; and the release of the white paper report of visitation panels to universities, among others.
Though the government had responded by inaugurating a committee headed by Emeritus Professor Nimi Briggs, negotiations did not bring about solutions, which led to the declaration of an indefinite strike by the union.
The strike has yet to be called off eight months after.
Meanwhile, the Parents/Stakeholders’ Forum of the Benue State University, Makurdi, has appealed to ASUU members in the institution to pull out of the national body to enable them to catch up with accumulated academic calendar years.
The appeal was contained in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the university, Mr Tser Vanger, on Saturday in Makurdi, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The statement quoted the PSF chairperson, Mrs Keziah Agundo, who expressed concern about the unutilised academic calendar months, explained that the pullout would enable the lecturers to reduce the accumulated workload.
She said the 2020 and 2021 undergraduate programmes had yet to be matriculated, while the 2022 Unified Matriculation Tertiary Examination admission was ongoing.
According to the statement, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Joseph Iorapuu, called for the resumption of academic activities in the institution.
He explained that most of the grievances of the lecturers bordered on funding.
The statement also indicated that the meeting was attended by top management employees of the university, including the BSU branch Chairman of ASUU, Dr Victor Tarnongo, who promised to present the demands of the PSF to the appropriate authorities.
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