The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will, on Monday (tomorrow), meet with the heads of all tertiary institutions in Nigeria to decide the National minimum tolerable UTME score (NTMUS), also known as ‘cut-off points’ for the 2025 Admission exercise.
The JAMB Admission Policy meeting is held annually with heads of all university polytechnics and colleges of education –both public and private– to decide the ‘cut-off point’ for admissions from the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
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The UTME, also held annually, is a Computer-Based Test (CBT), a prerequisite for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions. The maximum obtainable score in the UTME is 400 –100 for each of the four subjects for which candidates sit.
Cut-Off points
Each institution has different cut-off points. While some universities set as high as 200 UTME points, others set as low as 100 or 120 UTME points.
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However, all the institutions agree on a national minimum score a candidate is expected to get before being considered for admission by any tertiary institution.
Last year, the NTMUS for universities was pegged at 140 and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education.
How cut-off points are set
All the tertiary institutions have their individually preferred cut-off points, which they have communicated to JAMB.
At the meeting, they will all agree to a national minimum which no institution is allowed to go below. The decision on which points to go with is usually subject to voting by the heads of institutions present.
Any institution with a cut-off point set below the agreed point would have to raise its cut-off point.
Last year, at the meeting, the then Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, a professor, directed institutions not to admit candidates under 18. He rescinded the decision after protests by the heads of institutions present. He then asked that 16 be used for the 2024 admissions and 18 in subsequent years.
However, after Mr Mamman was removed as minister in October, the new education minister, Tunji Alausa, asked that the minimum age for admission be placed at 16.
Concerns
The current method of admissions, which JAMB mostly controls through its Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), has been criticised by some Nigerians, who argue that each institution should be allowed to conduct its own entrance examination and set its own guidelines.
But JAMB said it doesn’t interfere with the admission process, noting that the institutions decide who they admit.
JAMB had explained that each institution has admin access to the CAPS which ranks applicants based on their O’level results, UTME scores, and Post-UTME scores and other conditions listed by the respective institutions they applied to.
During last year’s policy meeting, JAMB registrar Is-haq Oloyede, a professor, explained that CAPS ensures that institutions offer admissions first to highly qualified applicants before others to eradicate favouritism in the admission process.
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