By Mariam Abeeb
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) policy meeting have set 2025 admission cut-off mark into universities at 150, polytechnics at 100, and School of Nursing at 140.
The resolution was made at the 2025 policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions and 5th edition (2023 and 2024) of National Tertiary Admissions Performance-Merit Award (NATAP-M).
Similarly, the admissions cut-off for Colleges of Agriculture and Education were set at 100.
The Federal Government has also pegged the minimum age for admission into tertiary institutions at 16 years.
”This policy decision reflects a balance between cognitive maturity and academic preparedness. 16 years is non-negotiable,” he said.
He noted that provisions existed for clearly documented and justified exceptions like gifted children with accelerated educational progress.
He warned institutions against attempting to circumvent the rule by altering age records, stressing that such
The resolution was made at the 2025 policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions and 5th edition (2023 and 2024) of National Tertiary Admissions Performance-Merit Award (NATAP-M).
The participatory policy meeting presided over by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa has Vice Chancellors of Universities, Rectors of Polytechnics, Provosts of Colleges of Education and other heads of institutions in attendance.
The policy meeting approved 150 as minimum UTME score for admission into universities for the 2025 academic year after deliberations and proposals from various vice-chancellors and heads of institutions.
The decision followed proposals ranging from 130 to 160 by stakeholders.
Meanwhile the Registrar, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede has warned that any institution that failed to upload its updated admission rules would be sanctioned.
Oloyede also said that failure of institutions to upload senate-approved brochure to JAMB’s Integrated Brochure and Syllabus System (IBASS) portal by the end of October would amount to forfeiting the right to use any altered admission criteria for the 2026 session.
He advised that the uploaded information must be available before the official brochure for 2026 is published.
Speaking on the timeline for the conclusion of the 2025/2026 admission exercise, he said that public universities must end their admission processes by the end of October 2025, while private universities by end of November.
He also said that Polytechnics and Colleges of education must conclude their admissions processes by the end of December 2025.
