Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says some tertiary institutions in Nigeria were found to have illegally admitted candidates as young as 10 and 12.

The ministry of education earlier pegged the minimum age for university, polytechnic, and college of education admissions at 18.

Oloyede, during JAMB’s policy meeting in Abuja, spoke on why it became necessary to adopt a minimum age for admissions.

He said some universities had admitted candidates as young as 12 and 10 outside JAMB’s central admission processing system (CAPS).

Oloyede cited the case of a Nigerian institution he did not name and a postgraduate applicant who was looking to study in Germany.

He said the student, documented to have enrolled in the university at 12 to graduate at 15, was discovered after they attempted to pursue a postgraduate degree in Germany.

Oloyede said the European Union, whose scholarship grant the student attempted to apply for, had contacted the board to verify the student’s credentials.

“The candidate applied for a postgraduate scholarship under Erasmus Mundus. The body found it strange that the candidate’s date of birth was 2007,” he said.

“By her passport, she started studying at a university in Nigeria when she was 12 and graduated at 15. The selection committee contacted Nigeria to confirm whether the candidate studied at a university.

“The EU asked if it was possible to graduate candidates at such a young age.”

Oloyede said such cases could negatively affect the perception of the larger pool of degrees awarded by Nigerian tertiary institutions.

“In the next two to three years, the EU could tighten its requirements and all graduates of Nigerian universities would suffer it,” he said.

“We found that [JAMB] never admitted the candidate because she was underage. The university admitted and registered the candidate. I couldn’t respond to the EU because I was embarrassed. I didn’t know what to write.

“Ignorantly, the vice-chancellor confirmed that the student attended the school but that they weren’t the VC at that time.”

TheCable cannot independently verify the identity of both the student and the institution cited in Oloyede’s anecdote.

A child who begins basic school at 6 and undergoes 12 years of education is expected to be around 18 when they get into university.

At the policy meeting, Oloyede said JAMB was alarmed at the participation of a large number of underage candidates in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

“The enrolment of underage candidates is inflicting serious damage on the university and the education.