The Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, on Wednesday advocated the scrapping of uniform university admission cut-off marks to promote competitiveness among the country’s universities.
Osaghae said that each university should be allowed to have its own admission cut-off marks because all universities were not equal.
He said, “The standards that the universities have are not the same. If you want to push all the universities to have the same standard, then you are negating the whole essence of competitiveness.
“Why do universities thrive to be excellent?
“It is so that they can be on the top, and the considerations for universities at the top should not be the same for those that are below.”
Osaghae suggested that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board should be saddled with the responsibility of administering entrance examinations, while universities should be allowed to select their candidates.
He said, “We have a matriculating board, JAMB. Let it administer the exams while tertiary institutions chose what they want.
“If you look at the world of ideas and the world of learning there is no equality there.
“If you select 10 unequal universities in the world and ask people to make a choice, you will find out that most people would want to go to the top universities.
“It is these top universities that have most of the stringent requirement; that is the practice all over the world.
“If you want to go into Oxford or Cambridge, you must have very good grades. That is what is practised all over the world.
“You cannot equalise all tertiary institutions and fix the same admission cut-off marks for them all.”