The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will on Monday convene its 2026 Policy Meeting to decide key parameters for admissions into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, including the approval of minimum cut-off marks.
Details of the meeting were contained in a statement released on Sunday, May 10, by the board’s Public Communications Adviser, Fabian Benjamin, who said the session would be presided over by the Minister of Education and attended by major stakeholders in the education sector.
He noted that the meeting would outline the framework guiding admissions for the year across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
According to the statement, stakeholders will consider “guidelines for the 2026 admission exercise into all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.”
The board added that discussions would also cover admission thresholds, including what it described as “the determination of the minimum tolerable scores for admissions,” which form the basis for entry into higher institutions.
JAMB further disclosed that a delegation from Sierra Leone would be present at the meeting as part of efforts by that country to study Nigeria’s admission model.
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The team is led by Sierra Leone’s Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Sarjoh Aziz Kamara, and includes Prof. Edwin Momoh of Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology as well as Prof. Bashiru Koroma of Njala University.
The statement explained that the officials are in Nigeria to “understudy the nation’s centralised admission system,” as Sierra Leone explores the possibility of adopting a similar structure to manage increasing demand for tertiary education.
It added that the delegation had already been taken through JAMB’s operational processes at its Bwari headquarters.
During the policy session, the visiting officials are expected to observe how various stakeholders are incorporated into Nigeria’s admission process, which the board described as a coordinated system involving multiple institutions and actors.
The delegation, according to JAMB, expressed appreciation for the exposure, noting that rising admission pressures in Sierra Leone have posed serious challenges, while the Nigerian system “offers practical solutions to issues they had long sought to address.”
The board reaffirmed its central role in Nigeria’s education system, stressing that its admission framework remains critical to tertiary placement nationwide.
It added that critics of the system “may better appreciate its strategic importance” in the absence of such a coordinated structure.