The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has retained 150 as the minimum cut-off mark for admission into Nigerian universities for the 2026/2027 academic session.
The decision was announced on Monday during the annual policy meeting on admissions held in Abuja, where stakeholders in the education sector deliberated on admission guidelines for tertiary institutions across the country.
JAMB said the benchmark was approved following consultations and voting by vice-chancellors and heads of tertiary institutions present at the meeting.
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Under the new arrangement, candidates seeking admission into universities must score at least 150 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), while colleges of nursing will also admit candidates from 150 and above. Polytechnics, however, will accept a minimum score of 100.
The board stressed that the approved scores remain the minimum benchmark for admissions, noting that individual institutions are free to adopt higher cut-off marks depending on the competitiveness of their programmes.
The development comes amid ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s tertiary admission process. Earlier on Monday, the Federal Government announced the removal of UTME requirements for candidates seeking admission into Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes in colleges of education.
Last year, JAMB also fixed 150 as the minimum admissible score for universities, a decision that generated mixed reactions among education stakeholders and members of the public, many of whom argued that the benchmark was too low for university admissions.
