The benchmarks were arrived at during the 2026 annual policy meeting on Admissions into Tertiary Institutions in Abuja on Monday

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the tertiary education stakeholders have approved the Minimum Admissible UTME Score, also known as the "cut-off" point, for the 2026 admission into the nation's universities, polytechnics and colleges of nursing.

During this year's annual policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions held in Abuja on Monday, the meeting adopted 150 as the benchmark for admission into universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education.

The meeting adopted 150 for Colleges of Nursing across the country.

From this year, applicants to Colleges of Education no longer need UTME for admissions, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, earlier announced.

The decision was adopted following a vote by the heads of the institutions.

The Vice-chancellors voted for the benchmarks for universities and rectors of polytechnics.

The voting session was moderated by the education minister Mr Alausa and JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, a professor.

While some universities have their minimum admissible UTME score set as high as 220, no university can admit students below the agreed 150.