That UTME celebrity and the debate on UNILAG’s admission policy

By Benjamin Ugbana…

I remember very well the day I walked into Multipurpose Hall A in Unilag to begin my registration as a fresher. Right in the crowd, there was this young girl crying her eyes out and being consoled by her mum and few other persons that cared to listen to her story. The young lady was offered Medicine & Surgery, but had just been denied admission because she didn’t meet the age requirement.

Walking up to the mum, who was almost in tears, I asked why they didn’t consider the age requirement before applying to study here. She started explaining how they weren’t even expecting to be given admission by Unilag, but when it happened by providence, everyone in the house advised her daughter to swear an affidavit to change her birth month but she refused. She told me exactly that.

Girl was going to be 16 years by December 2010, but Unilag required that applicants must be 16 by the end of October that year. Just three months, but the registration officers won’t even take a look at her swollen face. A bunch of serious fellas!

Elsewhere, a relative of my mum had been writing UTME for years without success, and was finally offered admission into Unilag to study Mechanical Engineering sometime in 2013. The family celebrated. They even went for Thanksgiving, that the Lord had finally answered their prayer. But during registration, he was rejected, as he didn’t have Further Mathematics in his O’ level. Even with an ‘A’ grade in Wassce Mathematics, Unilag will not take you for Engineering if you don’t have a Further Maths result.

I know few other persons who have been denied a Unilag admission because they have their O’level results in two sittings. Whereas Unilag wants you to pass all required subjects in one sitting.

That’s how the school works. I cannot categorically say there are no wrongdoings in Akoka, but the institution is known for its respect for law and order.

But why should this even be an issue? All admission requirements are boldly written on the school’s website, and it is expected that prospective students go through these requirements before opting for the school while filling their UTME forms.

This is why it’s rather worrying that we are dragging for this long the non-consideration of the 15-year-old boy who emerged best student in this year’s UTME by Unilag.

I read people calling on the school’s management to review their age requirement just to accommodate the young man. Please, is he the first? Will it not be unfair to the other students who have been denied admission for similar reasons?

The call to break such a clearly-stated part of the university’s admission policy because of a 347 UTME score goes a long way to show what we are made of as a people. We don’t care about principles or policies or laws, we cut corners whenever we get the opportunity to do so.

It’d actually be better if we are calling on the Unilag senate to subsequently sit and review its admission policy especially the age limit part, citing what’s obtainable in other countries of the world to buttress our argument.

But until the school looks into it, like JAMB rightly said on the matter, “Universities all over the world define their rules on admissions and other requirements that would enable them give their best to the public.

“The responsibility of reading the instructions should not be that of the board but of the candidates and the public.

“The board notes with dismay the pressure for it to shift the goalpost in the middle of the game by some sections of the public. It is quite commendable that Franklin emerged the best, but his emergence should not be an excuse to flout the rules as other institutions whose rules differ could give him a place.”

So, to whom it may concern, when next you’re applying for a thing, kindly read the instructions, especially to know your eligibility, so that you don’t cry foul in the end.

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