Abdulsalam Adigun,
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced 150 as the minimum cut-off mark for admission into Nigerian universities for the 2025 academic session.
The announcement was made during the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions, which took place on Tuesday at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja. The annual gathering brought together key stakeholders in Nigeria’s education sector, including heads of tertiary institutions and officials from the Federal Ministry of Education.
For other institutions, JAMB approved 140 as the cut-off mark for colleges of nursing, while polytechnics and colleges of education will admit students with scores from 100 and above.
In a post shared on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, JAMB confirmed that the new benchmarks were reached collectively by the heads of tertiary institutions across the country.
The Board noted, “The 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.”
This update follows earlier concerns over technical issues during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which led to the rescheduling of exams for some affected candidates nationwide.
Also at the meeting, the Federal Government reaffirmed its decision to enforce a minimum admission age of 16 years for all prospective candidates applying to tertiary institutions. Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who announced the policy, emphasized that the rule would be implemented through JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS).
According to the Minister, applicants who turn 16 by August 31, 2025, will be eligible for consideration, ensuring uniformity in the age requirement across all schools.
The policy move is aimed at standardizing admission criteria and improving the quality of entrants into the higher education system.