The University of Ibadan has promised to admit students who scored less than 200 marks in the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

The Director of the UI Distance Learning Centre, Prof. Emmanuel Omobowale, said this on Tuesday at a press conference held at the university in Ibadan.

Omobowale said students with low marks in the last UTME and those who did not sit the last UTME could be admitted to the university via its Open Distance e-Learning programme, saying the opportunities to get the same degrees as others were now available.

The Director said “prospective students would need to register with JAMB and sit an examination for the school, after which they would be issued the same certificates as the university and be mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps like their colleagues who were admitted for the regular programmes of the university.”

He noted the only requirement they must meet was to pass relevant subjects at the O’Level, saying the UIODeL was put together to give opportunities to thousands of qualified students who are denied admissions each year because of a lack of space in universities.

Omobowale also stressed that “the university could admit 100,000 students and even more through the programme, which he said would not be affected by frequent strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.”

According to him, the special window of admission into UI, which he described as an innovative way of increasing the number of students who secure admission under the leadership of the Vice Chancellor of UI, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, will address the problem of low carrying capacity universities.

He, however, noted that the admission requirement is the same standard as the conventional mode, and as stipulated on the university’s website.