The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has been urged to publish data on the performance and operating costs of its foreign examination centres before opening a new Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) centre in Ottawa, Canada, in 2027.

The call was made by the iRead To Live Initiative in a policy commentary following JAMB’s announcement that eligible Nigerians in Canada and other parts of North America would be able to sit the UTME without travelling to Nigeria.

While acknowledging that the move could improve access for Nigerians living abroad, the initiative questioned the evidence behind JAMB’s expansion of examination centres outside the country.

It said the board had operated foreign centres since at least 2013 but had not published comprehensive data on candidate numbers, operating costs or the centres’ contribution to admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions.

“The Ottawa decision therefore points to a broader gap. JAMB’s expansion abroad lacks a published evidence base, performance measures, and a public accountability framework,” the authors said.

According to the commentary, JAMB conducted the UTME in six foreign cities in 2013 and reported nine foreign centres in 2022, including Berlin and New York.

By July 2024, however, the number had fallen to eight cities, with Berlin and New York no longer listed and Banjul appearing for the first time.

The initiative said JAMB had not explained when the affected centres were opened or closed or why the changes were made.

It also faulted the board for failing to provide separate registration figures for candidates at foreign centres.

The commentary cited figures released by former JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who reported 1,886,508 registered candidates in 2019, including those at foreign centres. The 2024 registration figure of 1,989,668 was also not broken down to show the number of candidates registered abroad.

The authors said the board had equally failed to publish data on how many candidates who sat the examination at foreign centres were subsequently admitted, enrolled or graduated from Nigerian institutions.

They identified the cost of operating the centres as another area requiring transparency.

“JAMB has not published how many foreign-centre candidates were admitted, enrolled or graduated. It has not published the cost of any foreign centre or stated who pays for it,” they said.

The initiative argued that JAMB needed to distinguish between two objectives of its foreign examination programme: improving access for Nigerians living abroad and attracting international students to Nigerian tertiary institutions.

It said the objectives required different measures of success.

“Diaspora access serves Nigerians who already intend to study at home, and its success depends on uptake and cost. International recruitment brings non-Nigerian students to Nigerian campuses, and its success depends on visas, campus security, fees and teaching quality,” the commentary said.

It added that international student recruitment also depended on institutions and government agencies, including the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The researchers also questioned whether JAMB had established sufficient demand to justify the proposed Ottawa centre.

Although Canada has a sizeable Nigerian community, they said, the size of the diaspora alone did not show how many young Nigerians living there intended to pursue undergraduate studies in Nigeria.

The initiative recommended that JAMB publish an annual report on its foreign UTME programme, detailing registrations, attendance, candidates’ nationalities, admissions, enrolment, cost per candidate and examination malpractice cases.

It also called for a public register of all foreign centres established since the programme began, including their opening and closure dates and the reasons for any changes.

The board was further urged to publish clear criteria for opening and closing foreign centres before the Ottawa facility becomes operational. 

These should include documented demand, the size and location of Nigerian communities, operating costs and the minimum number of candidates required to sustain a centre.

The authors said the proposed centre should not be justified solely by its location or the presence of the Nigerian High Commission in Canada.

“The location of a mission does not show where prospective candidates live,” they said, calling for transparent criteria to assess accessibility and the role of diplomatic support in selecting examination locations.

The initiative also urged JAMB and the Federal Ministry of Education to establish separate performance indicators for diaspora access and international student recruitment.

It recommended a national strategy for international higher education, with defined responsibilities for JAMB, the NUC, the National Board for Technical Education, the National Commission for Colleges of Education, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission.

According to the commentary, JAMB could implement the recommendations on annual reporting, maintaining a register of foreign centres and publishing opening and closure criteria before the Ottawa centre opens.

The researchers said these measures would help answer questions about why the UTME is conducted abroad, how host countries are selected, how many candidates use each centre, how many subsequently gain admission and enrol, and the cost per candidate.

They also raised concerns about examination integrity and data protection, questioning how JAMB would ensure that candidates in Ottawa were assessed to the same standard as those taking the examination in Nigeria.

The commentary asked whether JAMB officials would be deployed to every foreign centre and how scores would be equated when examinations were conducted on different dates.

It further highlighted the need to address the transfer of candidates’ biometric data from Canada to Nigeria under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.

The authors, however, cautioned that greater transparency in JAMB’s foreign examination programme would not automatically make Nigeria more attractive to international students.

They said visa processing, campus security, accommodation and teaching quality would remain important factors in determining whether Nigerian universities could compete for foreign students.

The initiative maintained that publishing the relevant data would enable Nigerians and the National Assembly to assess whether the programme was delivering value and whether further expansion was justified.

The Ottawa UTME centre is expected to begin operations in 2027.