Education: Controversies as UNN imposes mandatory change of course

For several students who have been accepted to study courses of their choosing at the University of Nigeria (UNN) at the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year, they are asked to move to other courses as they have already begun lectures in courses they have already been accepted for coming with a plethora of pains.

We're talking about suicide. My sister is now dealing with depression. This triggered a crisis in my family-my mum, myself, everybody is distraught," said one of the students' siblings, compelled to shift their course of study from law to political science at UNN. I do not know what we are to do next but this is just unfair.

Issue
After three months of academic activity in their chosen course of study, students of medicine / surgery, pharmacy, law and nursing started receiving text messages on their phones from the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) on 1 April to move courses. One of text messages from JAMB read, “Dear, (students name withheld), University of Nigeria (UNN), Enugu State, want to transfer you from law to political science please visit www.jamb.or.ng/eFacility/login to download the CAPS Mobile app, to either accept/reject the program transfer order.”

The text message from the JAMB did not specify whether the students will retain their admission or student status if they reject the 'suggested' change of course.

But less than a week after receiving text messages from JAMB, Chris C. Igbokwe, a school registrar on the UNN website, gave students an ultimatum of two weeks either to accept a change of course or to lose their course.

This is to notify all candidates who were formally admitted through Supplementary Admissions into MEDICINE/SURGERY, PHARMACY. LAW AND NURSING SCIENCES, but who were reassigned to other related courses, in compliance with the directives from the Regulatory Agencies/JAMB to keep to approved Quota in those courses, that JAMB has placed a deadline of 30TH April 2020 to accept the courses so re-assigned in JAMB portal,” Igbokwe said in the statement.

Igbokwe said failure to accept the courses re-assigned would compel JAMB to delete their names from JAMB CAPS and replace with other candidates, resulting in students losing their admission.

Concerns

Parents who spoke up did not give their names to avoid their wards being victimized by the school authorities. They argued that it was unethical for the school to compel undergraduates to change their course of study against their wishes for unexplained reasons, particularly after they were initially admitted to their preferred courses. However, some of the parents believe that it could be because JAMB exceeded the limit for the number of students to be admitted for the courses.

“She has been depressed, crying since she found out that – It has been heartbreaking and we just wish there was a way out for this,” a mother of a student who resorted to leaving medicine and surgery to choose medical lab science as the school required of her.

Another mother, who preferred to be anonymous, said school fees and all other necessary registration had been completed for her daughter who was offered admission to study medical laboratory science.

“It is not fair,” she said while explaining that her daughter once got admitted to study biochemistry in UNN in 2018 after scoring 276 in JAMB but refused to take the admission and waited for the 2019 exam in which “she scored 296 to get the current admission.”

“You can’t force us to pay school fees for a course we don’t want. It doesn’t make sense, someone should pay for this – It shouldn’t be students paying for this.”

A lady, whose sibling got admission to study law but was asked to study political science, said it will be difficult to switch her course due to missed class activities which may lead to her having a poor result in her first year in school.

“The option of changing course in the second year is not feasible,” she said. “Excellent grades are required and these children are put in a position where they’ll have to be playing catch up when school resumes.”

She said her sister would have chosen to write another JAMB instead of choosing political science if the 2020 JAMB exam had not been written already.

If she eventually accepts to study political science, the undergraduate whose campus was in Enugu, the capital city of the state, while studying law, will have to move to Nsuka to attend political science classes.

She said it is not fair for students to be at the receiving end of the school’s negligence of supposedly over-admitting students beyond the limit given by JAMB.

Jamb gives reason for the change courses

Responding to the problems, JAMB spokesperson Fabian Benjamin said that UNN and other institutions whose graduates have been told to change their courses are to be criticized for not operating in line with the student admissions program.

Benjamin noted that students were told to change courses because the JAMB Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) did not find them eligible to take the courses.

“CAPS are to help students make an informed choice and it is not imposed. When asked why the students were admitted in the first place, Benjamin said the school did not initiate the students’ admission process in CAPS from the onset and were forced to later register them on CAPS which suggested other courses they are qualified to study.

“After we did everything (revisiting the admission on CAPS), JAMB realised that many of these students do not qualify, so they had to give them other options that their score can take. They were not qualified for the programmes they were given. They were admitted because they have long leg. Any school with admission outside CAPS was trying to hide something.

“This change of courses is only for students that are not qualified for those courses (they were admitted for). All admissions must be conducted inside CAPS which selects students for courses their grades merit them to read.

UNN’s defense

UNN Okwun Omeaku spokesperson declined to comment on the subject and JAMB 's response when contacted by our reporter on the phone.

In his reply, which initially came after calls and text messages had not been answered, Omeaku argued that the change of course directive was the fault of the students who had been asked to switch courses.

“There are guidelines on our website and the students did not meet the guidelines,” Omeaku said.

When asked why the students were admitted without meeting the school ‘guidelines’, Omeaku kept mute on the issue. He promised to call our correspondent back on the phone after he had spoken with the school’s registrar Chris Igbokwe. He, however, did not call back or pick our correspondent’s calls again.

Omeaku later sent a text to our correspondent on Friday, 8 May, saying “I don’t have the right answers for you right now. I have to consult with the right departments from Monday, hopefully.”

On Monday, Omeaku did not pick calls from our correspondent to provide the answers he promised since Friday.

UNN registrar Igbokwe did not respond to an email enquiry on the issue sent to him.