As from the 2025/2026 academic session, applicants seeking admission into higher institutions must be 18 years old, according to the agreement reached at a policy stakeholders meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on the 2024/2025 admissions.
The annual policy meeting is attended by heads of higher institutions and other stakeholders, and it sets the tone for the current session’s admission exercise and guidelines which all institutions must adhere to.
It was also agreed that candidates who are 16 years old would be considered for the 2024/2025 admissions.
Stakeholders and attendees at the policy meeting had protested as the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said only candidates who have attained 18 years would henceforth be given admission into tertiary institutions in the country.
But immediately Prof. Mamman said that, the hall erupted in rowdiness.
It took the intervention of JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, to restore normalcy.
Prof. Mamman insisted that the law required that their children should be in school at 18 years, having attended six years of primary education, three years of junior secondary school and three years of senior secondary school.
He added that the meeting was to ensure that the 2024/2024 admission process was fair, after which he accepted suggestions that applicants from 16 years and above should be eligible for the 2024/2025 admissions, while the law would apply from next session.
The meeting also adopted 140 as minimum cut-off mark for admission into universities, and 100 for Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (CoEs).
The institutions are expected to maintain the agreed minimum score for their admission and not go below it.
