JAMB Cut off Mark is a very important criteria used to offer eligible and qualified students admission into institutions of higher learning (Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education). Applicants looking forward to being admitted to study any course in any institution of their choice may have heard that they need to pass the UTME and meet up their school’s minimum cut-off mark to gain admission.
‘Cut-off Mark’ is a term used to describe the minimum score one is permitted to score in an examination or test before being considered eligible to be admitted into a particular program. In the case of students wishing to be admitted into a higher institution, they will have to meet the minimum JAMB Cut-off mark before being considered for admission. Therefore, JAMB Cut-off mark 2023 is the minimum score a student can record for him/her to be admitted into their course of study. Any student who did not score up to the cut-off mark cannot be admitted into any institution of higher learning.
It is important to note that JAMB Cut off Mark is being pegged at a certain number after due consideration of the overall performance of students in the year under review have been conducted by JAMB and other stakeholders. So, if the overall performance is high for a given year, the Cut-off Mark will as well be high and vice versa.
See Also: JAMB UTME Result 2023 Portal: How to Check JAMB Result in 2023
JAMB Cut-Off Mark 2023/24 Session
The authorities of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) after due consultation with relevant stakeholders in educational sector has approved 140 as the minimum cut-off mark for applicants wishing to be admitted into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Cut-off marks are set following votes by vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and provosts of colleges of education.
The benchmarks of 140 for universities and 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education were arrived at during the 2023 annual policy meeting on admissions into tertiary institutions, which was held in Abuja.
The policy meeting, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejoh, took the decision following recommendations by the heads of institutions. JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, said the minimum benchmark is not a single-suit-fits-all for all institutions, noting that though the meeting decides the minimum point, “institutions have the liberty to raise their individual minimum points higher than the agreed benchmark.”
It is to be noted that no institution will be allowed to admit students who score below the approved minimum cut-off marks for the respective institutions of higher learning. According to JAMB authorities, each institution has the liberty to set its own cut-off mark of up to 220 but no institution will be allowed to go below 140 for universities, 100 for polytechnics and colleges of education nationwide.
Course-Specific Cut-off Marks
To gain admission into highly competitive courses such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, Engineering, Architecture, Accounting, Nursing and other professional courses, students will have to score very high in their UTME Result as the competition for those courses will make the cut-off mark to be high in other to select the best candidates. This is because the Nigerian Universities Commission has given each university the required number of students to be admitted each year for a particular course with regards to accreditation and other requirements.
After the Post-UTME examination or screening as the case may be, the individual schools will then release its cut-off mark for the year under focus depending on the overall performance of the candidates.