Every May, thousands of Nigerian students hold their breath waiting for one announcement: JAMB’s Policy Meeting on Admissions. This is the meeting where the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board sits down with vice chancellors, rectors, provosts, and education stakeholders to decide the minimum UTME score candidates need to even be considered for university admission that year.

For the 2026 admission cycle, that meeting held in Abuja in May, and the numbers are now public. If you scored on the lower end of the UTME scale and you’re worried your dream of a university education is over, here’s the good news — and the fine print you need to understand before you relax.

The National Minimum: 150

JAMB set the national floor for degree-awarding universities at 150 for the 2026 session. Colleges of nursing sciences also require a minimum of 150, while polytechnics and colleges of education sit lower, at 100.

This 150 mark is a hard line. No university in Nigeria — federal, state, or private — is legally permitted to admit a candidate who scores below it. But here’s the part many students misunderstand: 150 is a floor, not a target. Individual universities are free to set their own cut-off marks anywhere above that number, and most of them do.

Where the Big Names Land

If you’re aiming for one of Nigeria’s flagship universities, don’t expect to get in on the national minimum. The 2026 policy meeting confirmed the following:

• Pan-Atlantic University set the highest cut-off on the entire list — 220.
• Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), University of Benin (UNIBEN), University of Ibadan (UI), University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Covenant University, and the Air Force Institute of Technology all fixed their minimum at 200.
• Lagos State University (LASU) and Lagos State University of Science and Technology settled on 195.
• Lagos State University of Education set 185.
• Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), University of Abuja (now Yakubu Gowon University), and University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) all pegged their minimum at 180.

Notice a pattern? The bigger and more sought-after the institution, the higher it tends to set its bar — because it can afford to be selective.

So Where Are the Actual “Low Cut-Off” Universities?

The lowest cut-off mark you’ll find anywhere in the country is, unsurprisingly, the JAMB national minimum itself: 150. A number of federal, state, and private universities — mostly the newer or less internationally recognized ones — simply retain this figure rather than raising it. These institutions absorb a large share of the applicant pool, since a striking number of candidates fall below the 200 mark each year.

In fact, official JAMB data from the most recent UTME cycle showed that about 70.7% of over 1.3 million candidates scored below 200 after all results, including resits, were processed. Only roughly 29.3% crossed that 200-point line. In other words, if you scored between 150 and 199, you’re not an outlier — you’re in the majority, and there are real universities structured to admit students exactly in that range.

The Catch: Course-Specific Cut-Offs

Here’s where a lot of students get caught off guard. A university’s overall minimum cut-off is not the same as the cut-off for a specific course. Even at a university that admits students at 150 across the board, competitive departments like Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Engineering will demand far more.

Medicine and Surgery is the most extreme example — most federal universities require a minimum UTME score of 260 to 300+ for that course alone, regardless of how low the school’s general cut-off is. So a “low cut-off university” can still be nearly impossible to enter if you’re chasing a high-demand course.

The practical takeaway: your course choice matters just as much as your school choice. A candidate with 170 has almost no shot at Medicine anywhere, but has real options in Education, Agriculture, Arts, and many Social Science programmes — even at universities with respectable overall rankings.

What to Do If You Scored Below 200

1. Don’t panic, and don’t assume you’re disqualified. A score of 150–190 still qualifies you for consideration at a wide range of accredited universities.
2. Research course-specific cut-offs, not just institutional ones. The school’s “minimum” is often irrelevant to the department you actually want.
3. Consider less oversubscribed courses. Departments with fewer applicants per available slot are far more forgiving of lower scores.
4. Complete your Post-UTME and CAPS profile properly. Meeting the cut-off mark only makes you eligible for consideration — it doesn’t guarantee admission. Screening exercises, O-level results, and catchment area or merit quotas still play a role.
5. Keep an eye out for policy updates. JAMB has, in past cycles, revised or clarified cut-off marks after the initial policy meeting, so it’s worth confirming with your specific institution before you finalize your choices.

Final Word

Nigeria’s university cut-off system rewards a bit of strategy over blind hope. The national minimum of 150 keeps the door open for the vast majority of candidates, but where that door actually leads depends heavily on which university and which course you’re aiming for. If flagship institutions like UNILAG or UI feel out of reach this cycle, there are legitimate, accredited alternatives sitting right at the national floor — you just have to know where to look, and be realistic about which courses are actually within reach of your score.