The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has drawn a firm line on standards for the upcoming academic cycle. At its annual policy meeting held Monday in Abuja, the board unveiled the benchmark scores and operational timelines that will govern tertiary admissions nationwide. The decisions affect millions of candidates who sat for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Cut-Off Marks: What Each Institution Requires
After deliberations among key education stakeholders, university admission was pegged at a minimum score of 150, a threshold that also applies to colleges of nursing. On the other hand, polytechnics and colleges of agriculture were assigned a lower benchmark of 100.
Importantly, universities retain the discretion to demand scores higher than the national minimum, depending on their own admission criteria. What they cannot do, however, is go below it.
Education Minister Tunji Alausa, who presided over the meeting, stressed that the figures were non-negotiable floors, not suggestions. He said the cut-off marks “represent the minimum requirement for admission and must be strictly followed,” adding that “candidates must meet the set standard.”
The minister also took aim at admissions conducted outside official channels. He declared that any admission not processed through JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) was unlawful and would carry no official recognition. The registrar reinforced this, noting that certain institutions had continued issuing admission letters to candidates who had not been cleared through CAPS, a practice he said had allowed lower-scoring candidates to gain entry over higher-scoring ones. Eleven universities are currently facing court proceedings over this very issue.
Admission Deadlines: A Category-by-Category Breakdown
Alongside the score thresholds, the meeting produced firm calendar targets for each class of institution. Government-owned universities must wrap up their admission processes by the end of October 2026, while their privately owned counterparts have an extra month, with a November 30 cutoff. Further down the calendar, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education have until December 31 to complete their processes.
JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede was direct about the consequences of missing these windows. He directed all institutions to “conduct their admission exercises strictly within the approved timelines,” warning that “once the deadline for each category expires, any institution that failed to conclude its admission exercise would no longer have access to candidates for that session.”
Candidates Also Face a Four-Week Acceptance Window
The new framework places obligations on candidates as well. Once an offer is made, the clock starts ticking. Prof. Oloyede stated that candidates “must accept their admission offers within four weeks,” and that “failure to do so within the stipulated period would result in the withdrawal of those offers.” Beyond losing the offer, he cautioned that “affected candidates may become ineligible for further consideration for admission in that session.”
On the issue of screening, institutions wishing to conduct post-UTME exercises may do so, but charges to candidates must not exceed ₦2,000. Institutions are also barred from requesting result documents independently, as JAMB will supply the data directly to curb impersonation.
Taken together, the registrar described the entire framework as one designed to bring “fairness, transparency and timely completion of admissions across all tertiary institutions in the country.” With more than 2.2 million candidates having registered for the 2026 UTME, the stakes for getting this process right have never been higher.