In an effort to save the country from academic embarrassment, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) has uncovered 3,000 fake graduates who never set foot within the four walls of a classroom.

This revelation was made by the Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, in a report published in the board’s bulletin, which was obtained by media in Abuja.

The board also condemned the issue of illegal admissions by some institutions, calling it a significant embarrassment to the country.

According to the bulletin, Oloyede disclosed this information during a meeting with the leadership of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State Universities.

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“Some ‘graduates’ had never entered the four walls of a university owing to the endemic corruption in the system, but the board had documented over 3,000 such cases.

Illegal admission of candidates into tertiary institutions in the country is an embarrassment and a disservice to the nation,” the bulletin read.

A Saving Point Media research report highlighted that hundreds of university graduates cannot defend what they had studied in school, making their certificates a source of embarrassment to both their institutions and the country, especially during job interviews.

The issue of illegal admissions has been a longstanding concern for JAMB. In December 2023, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education ordered JAMB to present a list of tertiary institutions that had conducted irregular and illegal admissions.

The examination body had earlier warned candidates to avoid accepting admissions from such institutions without full academic participation.

In a statement titled “Cessation of Illegal/Irregular Admission,” JAMB reiterated that all applications for admissions to first degrees, national diplomas, national innovation diplomas, and the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) into full-time, distance learning, part-time, outreach, sandwich programs, etc., must be processed only through JAMB.

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