Sudan crisis: JAMB rolls out modalities for absorption of returnee students
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has rolled out modalities for the absorption of returnee students from war-torn countries into Nigerian universities.
This was disclosed in a statement by the board’s Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
Benjamin said the modalities were follow-ups to the high-level meeting between the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Ministry of Health, JAMB, the Nigeria in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), the National Universities Commission (NUC), and other critical stakeholders.
He said the meeting was on the integration of returnee Nigerian students from war-torn countries into the nation’s tertiary education system.
He quoted the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, while presenting the modalities as saying that it was imperative to hold talks with the Vice Chancellors, following the peculiarities of each university and the variation in the responses received from them on the matter.
Oloyede pointed out that the emergency meeting was, therefore, convened to fashion out uniform standards and minimum acceptable benchmarks for the proposed absorption in line with global best practices.
He also stated that the Senate of each university had the right to decide on university transfers and did not need to wait for JAMB to initiate such a process, adding that the parley with the stakeholders was to present the modalities for critique as well as receive inputs.
He reminded the vice chancellors to key into the earlier advisory sent to universities on the procedures for processing applications for foreign and domestic inter-university transfers.
He said that the current advisory on returnees does not override the earlier one but rather serves to reinforce it by strengthening the procedures for transfers.
”According to the latest advisory on procedures for emergency transfersof returning students, each of them is mandated to do a retroactive registration with the education ministry.
”They are to visit the returnee application page on IBASS, accessible from the JAMB website, where the returnee students would upload their registration slips and complete the transfer of personal data.
”The personal data would include their name, NIN, telephone number, active e-mail account, current university, country, city of study and program, year, and current level of study, JAMB said.
‘According to the new procedures, the returnee students would select their preferred university of choice and program and upload scanned copies of their current university admission letter, transcript, data page of their international passport, and a sworn affidavit confirming the genuineness of the uploaded documents.
”The returnee students are directed to click SUBMIT for onward movement to their university of choice, which would receive a notification as well as an IBASS mail on the application forevaluation of the returnee’s credentials. If the returnee is found worthy of admission, a notification is sent to him or her on the status of the admission.
”Consequently, successful returnee students would be directed via email and SMS to approach any JAMB office in person to complete the inter-university transfer application,” he said.
The registrar charged the vice chancellors to be vigilant and thoroughly scrutinize the certificates submitted to their institutions to avoid any pitfall that could impugn their hard-earned reputation.
Stakeholders from the FME, NUC, NiDCOM, and Vice Chancellors, who aligned themselves with the position of JAMB, promised to support the initiative.
