The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced that candidates applying for Education programmes and Agriculture-related courses outside engineering will no longer be required to take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The examination body made this known in a post shared on its official X handle on Monday during its ongoing policy meeting on admissions.
“Candidates seeking admissions into Education Programmes and Agriculture non-Engineering Courses are now exempted from UTME,” the board stated.
The decision represents a major change in Nigeria’s tertiary admission system, where the UTME has long been the primary entrance examination for universities, polytechnics and colleges of education nationwide.
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JAMB’s annual policy meeting is traditionally held to set admission guidelines for tertiary institutions, including cut-off marks and other admission procedures.
Although exemptions from the UTME already exist for Direct Entry applicants and certain special categories, the latest announcement is regarded as one of the most extensive waivers introduced by the board in recent years.
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The new policy is expected to impact candidates seeking admission into education-related and non-engineering agriculture courses, with institutions likely to adopt alternative admission processes such as screening exercises and the consideration of other qualifications.
Over the years, Education and Agriculture courses have generally recorded lower cut-off marks compared to highly competitive programmes like Medicine, Law and Engineering.
Earlier, News Round The Clock reported that JAMB was expected to determine the 2026 UTME cut-off marks during Monday’s policy meeting.
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