The Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has warned universities against illegal admission that will necessitate ‘regularisation’ after admission has been offered.

He said seeking regularisation was illegal.

He also warned against the admission of underaged students.

JAMB regularisation is a process overseen by JAMB in Nigeria to validate and formalise the admission of students who were admitted into tertiary institutions without proper documentation or through informal means.

He lamented that the issue of regularisation had denied most candidates the opportunity to participate in the National Youth Service Corps.

Oloyede said this in Lagos on Tuesday at the opening of the seventh biennial conference of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria.

The theme of the conference was ‘Effective University Governance: Role of Stakeholders’.

He said that for the sake of accountability, data protection and integrity of the nation, this act needed to stop, saying anything irregular was illegal.

“I want to discuss what I call illegal admission. Many Vice-Chancellors don’t like the word, the truth is that no need to regularise what is regular.

“Calling for regularisation after admission is illegal. Some candidates can’t go for NYSC because they were not properly admitted,” he said.

He also complained that admission of underaged and diploma candidates was also illegal admissions.

He said, “About two months ago, I received a letter from a European country to confirm if a student graduated from a particular university because she is 15 years old and applied for a postgraduate programme. The question they asked me was ‘Is this possible in Nigeria?’

“Also illegal admission of diploma students needs to stop because last year, we admitted 9,000 diploma students; I was alarmed that about 3,000 students came from a particular university.

“Every one of us should be accountable because all these acts can damage our education system.”

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, in April, said the Federal Government was considering the adoption of 18 years as the entry age for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions of learning. (The PUNCH)

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