The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced 150 as the minimum admission benchmark for universities for the 2026 admission exercise.
The decision was reached on Monday during the 2026 policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions held in Abuja.
The benchmark, officially referred to as the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score, was approved by JAMB and key stakeholders in the tertiary education sector after deliberations.
With the development, universities across the country are barred from admitting candidates who scored below 150 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
However, individual institutions are permitted to fix higher cut-off marks for prospective candidates based on their admission requirements.
The approved benchmark follows a similar decision taken last year when universities also adopted 150 as the minimum score for admission.
Polytechnics and colleges of education had, in the previous admission exercise, retained 100 as their minimum benchmark scores.
The cut-off marks were adopted after consultations and voting by heads of tertiary institutions, including vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts, at the meeting.
