The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that candidates seeking admission into Education programmes and Agriculture-related non-engineering courses will no longer be required to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The examination body made the announcement on Monday through a post shared on its official X handle during its ongoing policy meeting on admissions.
According to the board, “Candidates seeking admissions into Education Programmes and Agriculture non-Engineering Courses are now exempted from UTME.”
The development represents a significant change in Nigeria’s tertiary admission system, where the UTME has traditionally been the standard qualifying examination for admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.
JAMB’s annual policy meeting is usually organised to determine admission procedures for tertiary institutions, including approved cut-off marks and other admission guidelines.
Although exemptions from the UTME are not entirely new, especially for Direct Entry applicants and certain special admission categories, the latest decision is regarded as one of the broadest waivers introduced by the board in recent years.
The policy is expected to affect candidates applying for education-related programmes and agriculture courses outside engineering disciplines, potentially opening alternative admission routes through institutional screening processes and other academic qualifications.
In recent years, Education and Agriculture courses have generally recorded lower admission cut-off marks compared to highly competitive programmes such as Medicine, Law and Engineering.
