The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released 279 results from the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that were previously withheld pending investigations into suspected examination malpractice.
The development was announced on Thursday in a statement issued by JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Fabian Benjamin.
JAMB commenced the release of the 2026 UTME results on April 20, following the conduct of the examination for more than 2.2 million candidates across the country. However, several results were withheld over allegations of examination malpractice and subjected to further scrutiny.
According to the Board, the 279 results were released after investigations found no prima facie evidence linking the affected candidates to any form of examination misconduct.
Benjamin explained that while some results had been cleared and released, others had been cancelled where investigations established credible evidence of malpractice.
“The release follows ongoing investigations into cases of suspected examination malpractice. While some results have been outrightly cancelled where evidence of malpractice was established, others have been released where the Board found no prima facie case against the affected candidates,” he said.
JAMB noted that results from examination centres flagged by its monitoring teams for suspicious activities, as well as centres that received adverse reports, would remain withheld until investigations are concluded. The Board warned that any candidate found culpable after the completion of the investigations would have their results cancelled.
The examination body advised candidates whose results are still unavailable to check their status by sending “UTMERESULT” to either 55019 or 66019 using the same telephone number used during registration.
The 2026 UTME was conducted between April 16 and April 25 at accredited Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide.
JAMB initially released 632,752 results for candidates who sat for the examination on April 16. It later published an additional 1,264,940 results for candidates who wrote the examination on April 17 and 18, bringing the total number of results released from the first three days of the exercise to 1,897,692.
The Board has also commenced the process of change of institution and course for candidates who participated in the 2026 UTME.
For the 2026 admission exercise, JAMB retained the existing minimum admission benchmarks, with universities and Colleges of Nursing Sciences admitting candidates with a minimum UTME score of 150, while polytechnics will continue to admit candidates who score at least 100. The Board also maintained 16 years as the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions.
In addition, JAMB announced a new policy that will take effect from the 2027 admission cycle. Under the arrangement, candidates seeking admission into Colleges of Education for education-related and non-engineering agriculture programmes will no longer be required to sit for the UTME.
According to the Board, the policy is aimed at expanding access to teacher education and agriculture-focused programmes, although candidates seeking admission into universities and polytechnics offering similar courses will still be required to participate in the UTME.
