The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Friday said it was satisfied with the ongoing admission screening process in some universities across the country.
ASUU also stated that it would be impossible to stop the screening of students seeking admission into the various universities in the country.
ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said this in Lagos.
Universities across the country have reportedly come up with fresh measures to screen candidates for the 2016/2017 admission exercise, following the scrapping of the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination by the Federal Government.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had recently announced the scrapping of post-UTME, while declaring open a Combined Policy Meeting on admission into the tertiary institutions.
He said it was unnecessary to subject admission seekers to another round of examinations after the UTME conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
But the ASUU president, who is also a lecturer at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, expressed the union’s satisfaction with the ongoing screening of prospective students in the various universities.
He said it was impossible for such screening exercise to be outlawed by the government when the Senate of the various universities were not opposed to it.
“I want to say that so far, we are satisfied with the screening procedure. We cannot be in all the institutions at a time, but reports reaching us and from our observations, the universities are on the right track.
“You see, no dictation from outside the universities can stop the institutions from doing this screening. It is part of the procedures spelt- out by the Senate of the various universities for admission of candidates.
“Government can only provide guidelines such as quota for the academically less-advantaged areas, but the issue of merit is strictly for the universities to determine,” Ogunyemi said.
He urged universities not to lose focus in ensuring that only qualified candidates were admitted into the various programmes.
According to him, the screening would also raise the quality of undergraduates, which would transform to quality graduates.
