Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has clarified that there is no uniform minimum score in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for admission of candidates into universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.
The Board also made it clear that the national cut-off mark decided each year after the conduct of UTME by stakeholders at the Policy Meeting on Admission was a minimum benchmark which respective institutions would not be allowed to go below.
examination body also reminded candidates to note that each programme (course) has a different minimum score which is usually very high for competitive programmes.
Benjamin said: “For long, many candidates and some members of the general public have come under the erroneous impression that there is a minimum national UTME score, which they also refer to as ‘cut -off point’
“The truth is that there is no one particular national minimum UTME score for all Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education in Nigeria,” said.
He also explained that in most cases, UTME score was not the sole determinant of placement of candidates into tertiary institutions.
He said this undue attention to “the so-called national minimum UTME score (UTME cut-off point) is a major source of failure of many ill-informed candidates who assumed that they have finally attained the benchmark having achieved the so-called minimum national score or “cut off point’ for admission”
The Board has repeatedly stated that: “No uniform minimum UTME score (cut -off) for all Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education in Nigeria; each Institution determines and submits to JAMB its minimum UTME score; after having analyzed the UTME performances of its applicants against its available quota.
“Decisions at the annual Policy Meeting on Admission does not reduce the minimum prescription of the institutions except the few institutions whose submitted minimum UTME- scores fall below what the Policy
