2022 UTME: JAMB constitutes research ethics committee
By Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu
Abuja
The joint admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has announced the
constitution of a research ethics committee which aims to streamline
all research proposals to be done by the board.
The decision to set up the committee was taken at an emergency board’s
management meeting held on July 2, 2022.
According to a release signed by JAMB’s Head of Publicity and
Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, and presented to Blueprint Monday, the
committee is to manage requests from within and without, for the use
of board’s data and materials as well as issue guidelines on the
release of such data for research use.
“This decision of Management was not unconnected with the series of
breaches of research ethics by some researchers leading to
near-embarrassing circumstances for the Board, a situation that is
unbecoming of a world-class assessment body like JAMB,” Benjamin said.
The committee, according to the release, will serve as a clearing
house for research papers to be presented at conferences, determine
the suitability of such papers as well as provide modalities and
guidelines as to how to release data for scholarly use.
“With the establishment of the committee, all members first seek the
clearance of the committee before submitting any paper to any
organisation especially when the position of the paper is not personal
to the Presenter, but is on issues bordering on the affairs of the
Board. By so doing, the Board hoped to preclude a situation whereby
some members of staff would write papers using the name of high
profile members of Management without their permission thereby
contravening best research practices.
“The committee was also charged with the responsibility of educating
staff on global best practices on research writing, among others.”
A list of eminent members was approved for the committee, which would
be led by a chairman who would be an appointee of the registrar of the
board. Thereafter, the registrar, in using this mandate, appointed
Prof. John Odili, a visiting scholar in the board as the pioneer
chairman.
Also, appointed was the Director of Legal Services as vice chairman,
while Directors of Finance and Accounts and Test Development were
appointed as ex-officio members. The Director of Quality Assurance
will serve as the secretary.
The release further clarified that the operational procedures was that
two other directors or their equivalents are to be appointed by
management, bringing in the Director of Admissions, Head, Public
Affairs and Protocols, all visiting scholars serving in the board,
including IT consultant as well as Dr (Mrs) Bosede Amoo.