*Nigeria鈥檚 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board sets 150 as the cut-off mark for admissions into Universities, as the public examination body retains the 16-year admissible age for admission into institutions of higher learning in the country in accordance with its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS)

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has set 150 as the cut-off mark for admission into universities in Nigeria.

绿帽献妻 reports JAMB announced this decision Tuesday, July 8, 2025, at the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions and 5th Edition of NATAP-M, held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, in Abuja, FCT.

In attendance at the Policy Meeting are Vice-Chancellors, Registrars, and Provosts of tertiary institutions nationwide.

The public examination body also disclosed the cut-off mark for Colleges of Nursing is 140, Colleges of Agriculture 100, and Colleges of Education 100 respectively.

JAMB, in a statement, posted on its verified X account noted: 鈥淭he minimum admissible scores for admissions for the next academic session have been fixed at 150 for Universities, 100 for Polytechnics, 100 for Colleges of Education, and 140 for Colleges of Nursing Sciences by the stakeholders (Heads of Tertiary Institutions)鈥� in the country.

Minimum admissible age for candidates is 16 years

Likewise, the Board stated that the minimum admissible age for candidates seeking admissions into tertiary institutions in Nigeria remains 16 years.

The 16-year age requirement, the Board stated, has been enforced through its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), with efforts made to accommodate candidates who would turn 16 by 31st August, 2025.

JAMB, however, expressed concern that some academic institutions have violated this directive by admitting 鈥渦nderage鈥� admission seekers through channels outside CAPS and collecting substantial amounts from them as tuition fees.

鈥淭he Board implemented the 16-year admissible age on its CAPS platform and even bent backwards to accommodate candidates who would be 16 as of 31st August 2025.

鈥淗owever, some institutions admitted candidates who were not up to the admissible age of 16 outside CAPS and even collected huge sums of money from them as tuition fees,鈥� JAMB stated.

The Board noted that all such admissions were illegal and could not be processed through CAPS.

Some of these cases have led to litigation against the offending institutions, it said.

Meanwhile, JAMB has announced that effective with the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, each candidate鈥檚 examination result slip would now include their 鈥渘ational ranking鈥� among peers.

The Board explained the initiative is designed to discourage the celebration of high UTME scores in isolation, and curbing the spread all manner of fake scores in the public space.

It further stated: 鈥淭o curb the menace of celebrating top scorers of UTME, candidates鈥� ranking (position) will be indicated on the result slip for each candidate.鈥�

This new-fangled measure, JAMB said, would assist institutions of higher learning in better evaluating the quality of applicants, and to provide a standardised reference point across cohorts.

By publishing ranking information, JAMB noted it believes that candidates parading falsified scores would also be discouraged, and institutions would gain a clearer sense of the academic standing of each applicant.

For context, the Board revealed that in the 2025 UTME, out of a total of 1,905,539 candidates, a score of 370 is ranked 16th, 320 is ranked 5,806th, 250 is ranked 107,819th, 200 is ranked 533,805th, 180 is ranked 948,025th, 140 is ranked 1,855,607th, 120 is ranked 1,900,872nd, while 100 is ranked 1,903,661st.

JAMB, therefore, restated its commitment to equity, transparency, and merit-based admissions into the Nigerian tertiary education system.