More than a hundred students, who took part in the just concluded pre-degree and remedial programme of the Kwara State University (KWASU), today besieged the University's contact office at Sango, Ilorin to express their grievances for not being recommended for admission despite meeting up with the required grade of the nine months course.

The students who converged at the contact office as early as 8:00 am today, said out of more than two hundred of them who passed the remedial programme, only eighty-two who passed the University Tertiary Matriculation Examination, (UTME) in addition, were recommended for admission.

Some of the students, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, explained that JAMB grade was not part of the criteria for admission at the initial stage, but that the institution management only introduced it after they were admitted for the programme.

According to them, the institution had instructed them to sit for UTME as required by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board in order to have record with the body and be able to be mobilized for the National youth service programme.

One of the students who expressed her feelings to Royal Times said "what is then the essence of the programme if it cannot guarantee us admission once we pass it? We could have sat for the UTME, passed and applied for admission without going through though all these rigours.

"I scored far more than the required grade for the remedial programme which they hammered on at the initial stage, but had 168 marks in UTME. The institution needs to consider us."

Another student while pleading that their effort and resources should not be allowed to go down the drain, lamented that many of them paid more than N130,000 as school fee, apart from other sundry expenses for their various programmes.

They therefore appealed to the school authority to consider the remedial students by reducing the JAMB cut-off mark from one hundred and eighty to one hundred and sixty so that their effort and resources will not be in vain.

Reacting to the development, the Director of Pre-degree and Remedial programme, KWASU, Dr Hamzat AbdulRaheem, explained that KWASU never promised automatic admission.

While stating that the students were informed before time of JAMB requirement, Dr Hamzat noted that JAMB will only send admission letter to candidates who scored one hundred and eighty and above.

He however explained that the remedial school is making effort to see to the plight of the affected students.