The Federal Government has approved 150 as the minimum admission cut-off mark for all universities and colleges of nursing across Nigeria ahead of the 2026 academic session.
The decision was announced by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa during the 2026 admission policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in Abuja.
Under the new guidelines, both public and private universities are expected to adopt the benchmark, while polytechnics will admit candidates with a minimum score of 100.
The committee warned that any institution found admitting candidates below the approved thresholds would face sanctions.
Stakeholders at the meeting also approved a minimum cut-off mark of 150 for colleges of nursing nationwide, an increase from the 140 benchmark adopted during the previous admission cycle.
On admission screening, the government directed that institutions willing to conduct post-UTME or other screening exercises are free to do so, but must not charge candidates more than N2,000.
The meeting further approved new admission ratios for tertiary institutions across the country.
Conventional universities and colleges of education are expected to maintain a 60:40 admission ratio in favour of science-related courses, while specialised universities and polytechnics will operate an 80:20 science-to-arts ratio.
The annual admission policy meeting, convened by JAMB after the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, brings together education stakeholders to determine admission benchmarks and other guidelines for the new academic session.
At the 2025 policy meeting held in July, universities were also directed to adopt 150 as the minimum cut-off mark, while colleges of agriculture and colleges of education maintained 100.
