Nigerian Tertiary Schools Admission Board Cancels General Cut-off Marks, Leaves Schools To Decide

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cancelled the national admission benchmark also known as cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions.

This allows each of the nation’s tertiary institutions to peg its admission benchmark.

The decision was taken at the 2021 policy meeting which was held virtually and chaired by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

The board’s registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, stated: “Some universities such as University of Maiduguri proposed 150, Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto proposed 140, Pan Atlantic University proposed 210, University of Lagos 200, Lagos State University 190, Covenant University 190, Bayero University Kano, 180.

“Institutions have now been given the liberty to decide cut off marks, there will be no cut off from JAMB.”

On the deadline for the closure of admissions, the stakeholders resolved to allow the ministry to decide as they could not agree on the December 31, 2021 deadline for all public institutions and January 31, 2022, for all private institutions.

Stakeholders also adopted the 2021 admission guidelines, which provide that all applications for part-time or full-time programmes for degrees, (NCE) National Certificate In Education, OND (Ordinary National Diploma), and others must be posted only through JAMB.

The meeting approved that for Direct Entry, the maximum score a candidate can present is 6 and the minimum is 2 or E, as required by law.