The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and stakeholders in the tertiary education sector have approved 150 as the minimum admission benchmark for universities for the 2025 admission exercise.
The decision was reached on Monday during the 2026 annual policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions held in Abuja.
The approved scores, officially known as the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Scores, mean that no tertiary institution is permitted to admit candidates who score below the agreed benchmarks.
However, institutions are free to set higher cut-off marks for applicants seeking admission.
Last year, universities adopted 150 as the minimum benchmark, while polytechnics and colleges of education retained 100.
The benchmarks were adopted after extensive deliberations and voting by heads of tertiary institutions, including vice-chancellors.
Steady Decline
Since 2018, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has repeatedly adjusted admission benchmark policies in response to concerns over access to tertiary education, institutional flexibility, and declining enrolment in some programmes.
In 2018, JAMB reduced the minimum benchmark for university admissions to 140, significantly lower than the long-standing 180 benchmark that had been widely used for years. The following years saw further adjustments, with public universities adopting 160 as the benchmark in 2019 and 2020, while many private universities retained lower thresholds to attract more applicants.
A major policy shift occurred in 2021 when JAMB moved away from a uniform national cut-off mark system, granting tertiary institutions greater flexibility to determine their own admission benchmarks based on programme competitiveness and institutional capacity. Despite the flexibility, universities were generally advised not to admit candidates scoring below 120. Between 2022 and 2024, the benchmark for universities stabilised at 140 as stakeholders sought to balance access with academic standards. In 2025, however, stakeholders at JAMB’s annual policy meeting approved 150 as the new minimum benchmark for university admissions, reflecting renewed efforts to strengthen admission standards across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
