The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and tertiary education stakeholders have adopted “the National Minimum Tolerable UTME Score (NTMUS),” or the cut-off score for 2023 admission into the country’s universities.
The criteria of 140 for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education were agreed upon at the 2023 annual policy conference on admissions into higher institutions, which took place on Saturday in Abuja.
The policy meeting, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejoh, took the decision following recommendations by the heads of institutions.
JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, said the minimum benchmark is not a single-suit-fits-all for all institutions, noting that though the meeting decides the minimum point, “institutions have the liberty to raise their individual minimum points higher than the agreed benchmark.”
“Anything we decide here will become the minimum. What it means is that nobody can go below it,” Mr Oloyede said.
Implication
This means that about fifteen private universities who had earlier chosen 120 and 130 as minimum points would have to increase their minimum points to at least 140.
Also, all polytechnics and colleges of education cannot admit students with less than 100 minimum score.
How cut-off points are set
All tertiary institutions have individually preferred minimum points by which they admit candidates. This desired minimum point is sent to JAMB ahead of the meeting.
