JAMB Maintains 150 Cut-Off Mark for 2026/2027 University Admissions

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has maintained the 150 minimum cut-off mark for admission into Nigerian universities and colleges of nursing sciences for the 2026/2027 academic session, keeping the same benchmark used in the 2025 admission cycle.

The examination body also fixed 100 as the minimum cut-off mark for polytechnics and monotechnics, a decision reached during the 2026 JAMB Policy Meeting attended by heads of tertiary institutions across the country.

The benchmark directly affects more than 2.2 million candidates who sat the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in April, with candidates scoring 150 and above now eligible for consideration for university admission, and those scoring 100 and above eligible for polytechnic admission.

JAMB’s admission benchmark has remained largely stable in recent years, rising from 140 during the 2022/2023 cycle to 150 in 2025, where it has now been retained for a second consecutive year.

Education stakeholders have offered mixed reactions to the decision. Some describe the retained benchmark as a pragmatic step toward expanding access to tertiary education, while others caution that maintaining a lower cut-off risks masking deeper structural problems within the education system if not paired with reforms addressing the root causes of declining academic standards.

Separately, JAMB also confirmed that the minimum age requirement for admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education remains 16 years, and announced updates to its no-UTME admission policy for candidates seeking Nigeria Certificate in Education programmes.