Why HE leaders said ‘no’ to proposed entry scores cut-off

Attempts by Nigerian Education Minister Dr Tunji Alausa to raise the bar for admission into tertiary institutions met a brick wall at the annual 2025 policy meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) hosted earlier this month in Abuja.

The policy meeting shapes the admission landscape for all tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Its decisions serve as a roadmap for the admission cycle, including entry requirements. No tertiary institution is allowed to do anything outside the decisions reached at the policy meeting.

University World News reported that the minister intended to increase the National Minimum Tolerable Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score, popularly known as the cut-off mark for university entry, from 140 to 160 to reflect the standard that higher education is expected to deliver.

He stated that, if Nigeria’s higher education is to be seen as an international product, it should reflect global standards, adding that lowering the entry point for admission could also affect standards.

However, his proposal was rejected by heads of tertiary institutions, including vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, who insisted that the status quo be maintained.

Eventually, the cut-off mark for universities was fixed at 150 and that of polytechnics, colleges of education and other technical institutions at 100.

The entrance score

Although the 2025 cut-off is 10 points above the 2024 requirement, the national cut-off mark has been declining for some years.

A decade ago, it was pegged at 180, but the post-COVID era has been marked by a lowering of the score with the cut-off fixed at 160 for the 2020-21 university admission cycle.

In 2022, JAMB announced 140 as the requirement for universities and 100 for polytechnics. This was retained in 2023 and in 2024.

The points earned by candidates who want to gain entry into tertiary institutions are based on the achievement of candidates in four subjects. Each subject is scored out of 100 and the final score, which has now been set at 150, is a score over 400.

‘Why we reject higher cut-off marks’

Speaking to University World News, Professor Noah Yusuf, whose tenure as vice-chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, a private university in Nigeria’s north-central region, ended recently, said privates cannot afford a high cut-off mark because the schools cannot afford to reject students.

“We rely on tuition for survival. The more students we have, the better for us. Unlike public universities, we don’t enjoy government support. Take my university as an example. We are almost aggressive to capture every candidate. We use the money to pay salaries [and] maintain the university. So, we can’t afford a high cut-off,” he said.

Yusuf, who also serves as the vice chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Registrars of Private Universities, said the Nigerian government has failed to extend the Tertiary Education Fund, or TETFUND, support to private universities, despite several moves for this to happen.

“They always tell us TETFUND legislation does not cover private universities. But the law can be amended. If [privates] contribute, why shouldn’t private universities benefit from it?” he said.

Dr Bande Muhammed, the rector of the Federal Polytechnic Kaura Namoda in Zamfara, north-western Nigeria, stated that the move for higher cut-off marks was rejected because of the boomerang effect it would have on admission.

“Candidates don’t choose polytechnics. If the cut-off mark is raised, we won’t have candidates. We will run empty classes,” he said.

Dr Taofeek Adekunle Abdul-Hameed, an engineer and the rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ayede, Oyo State, in the south-west, shares the same views.

Justifying the 100 cut-off mark for polytechnics, he said: “Nobody will believe we are not lowering quality, but the problem has to do with the way we think in this part of the world. People think, once you go to the university, you are brilliant. From the outset, nobody wants to go to polytechnic.

“Hardly will you see any candidate who will choose poly above university. You can’t blame them. We see discrimination against poly graduates everywhere – in the workplace, in society. They are seen to be less brilliant. So, candidates prefer universities – that’s why universities will always have the upper edge.”

When reminded by University World News that further lowering the cut-off for polytechnics tends to justify such discrimination, he said: “I agree. Because now we are reinforcing the notion that universities are superior to polytechnics right from the point of admission.

“We are more or less justifying the assertion. Left to me, I would have preferred that we set [something] like a 200 cut-off mark for both polytechnics and universities and allow students to choose what they want.”

For his part, Professor Jeleel Ojuade of Ojaja University, Ilorin, Kwara State, north-central Nigeria, justified the low cut-off mark, stating that, “even if every candidate that sits for UTME is offered admission, they would still not have been sufficient [points] for all the universities in the country.

“Students lose admission once they are not admitted to their first choice of university. There is no second or third choice. This is the peculiarity of the admission process. So new-generation universities, and even the older ones, are doing everything possible to assist candidates to get admission.

“That’s why we clamour for a reduction in [admission] marks. JAMB should also be sensitive to candidates and restore the options of first, second and third choices,” he told University World News.

Gap between available quota and admission

Meanwhile, despite the low cut-off marks and the desperation for students expressed by higher education managements, thousands of candidates fail to secure places, leaving many institutions undersubscribed.

For example, out of the 1,897,525 candidates who sat the UTME qualifying examination in 2024, only 856,873 have been admitted into higher education.

Similarly, despite the large number of candidates applying for some courses and the spaces available, there is a wide gap between the available places and the number of people admitted.

Education Minister Alausa expressed concern over the situation and wanted institutions to start closing the gap. “What we need is to expand access and build capacity. We don’t need new institutions. They are undermining the quality of education,” he said.

An analysis of the 2024 admission statistics shows there are unused quotas in nearly all the programmes at Nigerian universities.

For example, while the quota or places for law or legal studies was 10,261, only 8,931 candidates eventually got admission. This is despite the fact that 104,244 applied for the course.

The same applies to medicine, pharmacy and health sciences. A total of 92,991 students were admitted despite the available quota of 114,120 and a total of 577,575 applications.

For engineering, technology and environmental studies, out of a quota of 169,398, only 76,046, representing 48.6% of the available places, were filled. In the sciences, out of available places of 301,417 only 154,712 were taken up.

The situation is similar in administration, which had a quota of 54,229 but filled only 44,443 places. In social sciences, the quota available was 131,276 but only 98,356 places were filled.

Education had a quota of 143,127, but 103,945 places were filled, while agriculture, with a quota of 56,576 had just 29,467 places filled.

The information about the placements and applications came from the registrar’s report on the 2024 admissions presented at the 2025 JAMB policy meeting.

Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, while providing reasons for this wide disparity, said: “[The] reasonable percentage of unadmitted [applicants] is due to [the] rigidity of programme choice, the mismatch of demand and supply, [and] a lack of interest or demand for existing vacancies, as in the case of education, agriculture and basic sciences.”

He further explained that some candidates either do not have the required O-level results or have a wrong O-level subject combination.

Other reasons for not accepting applicants include applications by under-aged candidates (those under 16), trial candidates (who do not yet qualify, based on their level of schooling, to write the exam, but try it out), those with the “wrong” UTME subject combinations (school subjects that do not provide entry into a specific field of study), as well as candidates who do not have evidence post-UTME screening, which is confirming the authenticity of O-level results.

Relevance and quality amid expansion

Nigeria’s education policy prioritises science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in its quest for education that offers practical application and can solve real-world problems. But many institutions still focus more on non-STEM courses. For instance, polytechnics established to teach vocational and technical studies concentrate more on management courses.

According to school managers, teaching non-STEM courses is at much lower cost due to the ability to deliver more instructional knowledge with less infrastructure.

For instance, Rector Abdul-Hameed, said: “We are currently concentrating on management courses because of Internally Generated Revenue, [which is the money higher institutions get from students to run their institutions]. It is difficult to run technical courses; the management courses are easy to run.

“They also bring in more money, with little effort. Courses like public administration are courses you run with just chalk and board – no need for laboratories. We are looking for money.”

From just 49 universities in 1999, Nigeria now has 297 universities. Although this figure may be adequate for a population of over 200 million, infrastructural deficiency amid inadequate faculty staff has brought to question the essence of this proliferation.

Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the immediate past national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, said Nigeria might be prioritising quantity over quality in its approach to higher education.

“I believe we are now in a country that believes in quantity rather than quality. You are creating more universities when you cannot fund the ones you already have. That’s the essence of what they are doing,” he said.

What is the way forward?

When queried on what the country’s leadership efforts should be directed towards, Yusuf advised government to increase the funding level for education.

“The current percentage of funding to the education sector is very low. Japan has no natural resources but it has human capital. We need to develop our human capital. Government should also diversify the educational system. Emphasis should not be on certification but on delivery.

“Let’s focus on skill acquisition, development education that can benefit every sector of the economy,” he said.

Abdul-Hameed said the government should allow polytechnics to offer BTech degrees, noting that this would put polytechnic education on a par with universities.

“There may be no immediate solution, but we must start somewhere. If education is properly funded and polys are allowed to award degrees, the problems would be solved gradually,” he suggested.