Some universities would admit 10-year-olds ? JAMB registrar gives reasons it's imperative to introduce age limit for university admissions

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed the extent universities violate the age limit for admission seekers in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

Oloyede said that some universities would even admit students as young as 10 years in a desperate attempt to flout the legal age limit of 18.

Speaking during the JAMB policy meeting in Abuja, Oloyede cited examples of universities like UNILAG and OAU, with a minimum age requirement of 16 years.

He also narrated a case of a candidate who applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany, only to discover that she had graduated from a Nigerian university at the age of 15.

He said: “Whereas 18 years is the issue, but UNILAG, OAU will not accept anybody who is not 16. Some of you will admit even 10.  Look at this case, underage admission, a case of a university in Germany. A candidate applied for a master’s degree at a university in Germany. She then applied for the Erasmus Scholarship programme, which is an EU program. She applied for a postgraduate scholarship.

“The country found it strange that a candidate was born in 2007 and on her passport, she started university when she was 12 years old. The selection committee contacted Nigeria to confirm indeed if the candidate studied at the university and graduated at the age of 15 in Nigeria.

“The EU was asking us whether this is possible at that young age. And you know the implication? I can bet with you in the next two to three years, they will tighten the issue. Graduates of Nigerian universities will have to suffer one humiliation or the other.

“We found that (JAMB) never admitted the candidate because she was underage. The university admitted and registered the candidate. I couldn’t respond to the EU because I was embarrassed. I didn’t know what to write.

“Ignorantly, the vice-chancellor confirmed that the student attended the school but that they weren’t the VC at that time.”