Despite widespread public outcry, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has held firm on 150 out of 400 as the minimum university admission cut-off mark for the second consecutive year.
The decision, which was announced at JAMB’s annual policy meeting held in Abuja on Monday, was reached following a vote by vice-chancellors present at the gathering, a process that lends institutional weight to a figure that has remained both a policy anchor and a lightning rod for criticism within Nigeria’s education sector.
For the second consecutive year, the Board has settled on 150 as the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score for universities, the threshold below which no tertiary institution is permitted to offer admission to any candidate.
Colleges of Nursing will operate under the same benchmark of 150, while polytechnics have been assigned a considerably lower floor of 100.
The scores, formally described as National Minimum Tolerable UTME Scores, serve as a binding baseline across all participating institutions.
However, universities and other institutions retain the discretion to set higher internal cut-offs, a provision that effectively allows more competitive schools to filter applicants more rigorously even as the national floor remains unchanged.
Last year’s adoption of the 150 cut-off triggered a wave of public concern and drew sharp criticism from education stakeholders, parents, and observers who argued the mark was far too low to serve as a credible gateway into Nigeria’s universities.
Critics warned that admitting students with such scores risked undermining academic standards and devaluing the worth of Nigerian degrees on both the domestic and international stage. Yet the board has held firm, signaling a deliberate policy posture rather than a concession to pressure.
In what may prove to be one of the more consequential announcements from Monday’s meeting, JAMB revealed that candidates seeking admission into education programs and agriculture non-engineering courses are now exempted from the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) requirement.
The move, which is likely to attract attention from prospective students and academic planners alike, reflects a targeted effort to boost enrollment in sectors the government considers critical to national development, teaching, and food security, among them.
The exemption raises fresh questions, however, about the long-term implications for quality control in those disciplines, and observers will be watching closely to see what alternative admission criteria institutions will adopt in the absence of standardized UTME scores.
Weighing in at the policy meeting, Minister of Education Tunji Alausa reaffirmed the government’s position that 16 years remains the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions across Nigeria, a stance that has itself been the subject of recurring debate given the country’s diverse educational landscape.
“Following extensive consultations and policy reviews, the government has maintained sixteen years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions,” the minister told attendees. “This position reflects a careful balance between inclusivity and academic readiness.”
Alausa acknowledged the reality of exceptionally gifted young students but was firm that such cases must be handled within clearly defined and rigorously enforced guidelines. “We must preserve the integrity of the system as a whole,” he stressed, suggesting that exceptions, while possible, would not be granted casually or without stringent oversight.
The minister also used the occasion to issue a stern warning to institutions tempted to process admissions outside JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), declaring such admissions illegal and warning that they would not be recognized by the government.
The directive reinforces JAMB’s role as the singular gateway for tertiary admissions in Nigeria and puts institutions on notice that circumventing the system, whether through informal arrangements or administrative shortcuts, carries serious consequences for both the institutions involved and the students they seek to admit.
As Nigeria’s estimated 1.5 million-plus UTME candidates begin processing Monday’s announcements, the conversation around the 150 cut-off mark is unlikely to quiet down.
For many families, particularly those in underserved communities whose children straddle the line between eligibility and rejection, the retained benchmark offers a measure of relief.
What is clear is that JAMB, backed by the Ministry of Education and the collective vote of the nation’s vice-chancellors, has chosen continuity over change at least for now.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
For the second year running, JAMB has retained the 150 cut-off mark for university admissions, brushing aside public criticism that the benchmark is too low. While polytechnics operate at a lower floor of 100, the board has drawn a firm line no institution may admit below these scores.
With the minimum admission age locked at 16, the system remains largely unchanged, and the debate over whether Nigeria’s admissions standards are truly fit for purpose is far from over.
