The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that preparations are complete for the commencement of admissions into Nigerian tertiary institutions for the 2024 academic year. The board revealed this information in its weekly bulletin published on social media platform X on Monday.
A crucial step in this process is the annual policy meeting, scheduled for Thursday, July 18, in Abuja. Minister of Education Tahir Mamman will chair the event, which officially marks the beginning of the admissions cycle.
“This year’s exercise will also feature the National Tertiary Admissions’ Performance-Merit Award, NATAP-M Awards, where the overall winner will receive N500 million, and other consolation winners will share N250 million collectively,” the bulletin stated.
The policy meeting brings together key stakeholders in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, including vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics and monotechnics, provosts of colleges of education, and representatives from innovation enterprise institutes.
These educational leaders will review the performance of the 2023 admissions exercise and the results of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
One of the primary objectives of the meeting is to establish guidelines for the 2024 admissions process. This includes setting minimum admission scores for institutions, a decision based on aggregated submissions from individual schools.
The bulletin clarified a common misconception, stating, “This is not a cut-off mark, as often misconstrued, but a minimum score that no institution should go below.”
JAMB emphasized the collaborative nature of the policy-making process, noting, “The decisions made at the meeting, chaired by the Minister of Education, form the guiding norms for admission and are a collective decision, not solely that of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.”
The board also issued a clear directive to institutions: “No institution is expected to commence the admission process until after the policy meeting, as the guidelines regulating the year’s admission exercise are determined at the meeting with the endorsement of the Minister of Education.”
JAMB warned that any institution violating these collectively established norms would face sanctions, underscoring the importance of adherence to the guidelines set forth in the policy meeting.
As Nigeria’s central admissions body for tertiary-level institutions, JAMB plays a crucial role in coordinating the annual intake of students into the country’s universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
