To attract more foreign candidates into Nigerian tertiary institutions and broaden inclusiveness, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the managements of tertiary institutions across the country are set to provide waivers for certain categories of candidates that meet admission requirements.

To this end, JAMB and institutions have announced that all candidates in foreign countries, Correctional Centres, as well as the Blind and Deaf Candidates are to be exempted from pre-admission institutions screening tests.

JAMB in its weekly bulletin announced that for every year preceding the admission exercise, the lists of the respective candidates in these categories would be made available to the various Tertiary Institutions for guidance and necessary action.

The Board explains that “This special waiver is to be seen as affirmative and inclusive action for the accommodation of the affected candidates.

“The Board and the Tertiary Institutions would ensure that candidates from these categories, who meet minimum requirements are admitted and their progress monitored in the various institutions for confirmation of the effectiveness of the policy as directed by the 2021 Policy Meeting.

To guide against prospective candidates taking undue advantage of the waiver, JAMB said that measures would be put in place to forestall unjustifiable benefits from the exemption policy.

“For instance, only candidates who are either foreigners or Nigerians that have been confirmed to be residents in foreign countries and are products of foreign school systems can enjoy this privilege in the interest of internationalization of the nation’s Tertiary Institutions.

“A Nigerian with less than six (6) month-stay in a foreign country is disallowed from taking the UTME in any foreign country. “This effort is to enhance the intake of international students into our tertiary institutions to improve their global rating,” JAMB stated.

Besides, the Board explained that it is at the moment, working on some policy directions to make our universities attractive to foreign students.

It would be recalled that The Times Higher Education (THE), a renowned global body that creates university rankings to assess university performance on the global stage, had over the years rated the nation’s universities zero, except UNN on the enrolment of international students.

(Daily Independent: Excludes headline)

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