Jane Salihu
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and heads of tertiary institutions have approved 150 as the minimum cut-off mark for admission into Nigerian universities for the 2026/2027 academic session.
The decision was reached on Monday at the 2026 Policy Meeting on Admissions to Tertiary Institutions held in Abuja and presided over by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa.
Under the new admission guidelines, candidates seeking admission into universities and colleges of nursing sciences must score at least 150 in the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to be considered for admission.
For polytechnics and colleges of education, the minimum admissible score was pegged at 100.
Although the benchmark sets the national minimum, universities and other tertiary institutions are free to adopt higher cut-off marks depending on the competitiveness of their courses and internal admission policies.
Speaking at the meeting, JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, said no institution would be allowed to admit candidates who scored below the approved national benchmarks.
He also announced that institutions wishing to conduct post-UTME screening may do so, but must not charge more than ₦2,000.
Oloyede added that institutions are prohibited from requesting candidates to upload O’Level results independently, noting that JAMB would provide verified results directly through its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).
The board also fixed December 31, 2026, as the deadline for public universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education to conclude admissions, while private universities have until November 30, 2026.
In another policy decision, the Minister of Education announced that candidates seeking admission into colleges of education to study Education and Agriculture-related non-engineering courses would no longer be required to sit for the UTME.
However, such candidates must still register with JAMB to enable screening, verification and issuance of admission letters through CAPS.
The policy meeting also reaffirmed 16 years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions.
JAMB further unveiled the top performers in the 2026 UTME, with Owoeye Daniella Jesudunsin from Ekiti State emerging as the highest scorer with 372 out of 400 marks.
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