The recently concluded 2025 Policy Meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has introduced sweeping changes to Nigeria’s tertiary education admission process-chief among them, a new national ranking system for candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
At the annual event, which convened key education stakeholders, including policymakers and heads of tertiary institutions, JAMB announced significant decisions impacting the 2025/2026 academic session. These included the adoption of a national minimum admission benchmark, fixed admission deadlines for the 2024/2025 cycle, enforcement of a 16-year minimum admission age, and a shift to a new UTME ranking format.
One of the most debated policy shifts was the decision to include candidates’ national rankings on their UTME result slips. This ranking reflects each candidate’s relative performance across the country, not just their raw score.
According to JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the ranking will debut with the 1.9 million candidates who took the 2025 UTME. He explained that the goal is to help universities and other tertiary institutions better assess candidates’ competitiveness based on both score and standing.
“For example,” he said, “a student who scores 360 might rank 115th nationally, while someone with 200 could be 546,784th. This provides context and helps institutions make more informed choices.”
JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, defended the decision, likening it to primary school rankings where students are assessed in comparison to their peers. “This ranking helps to avoid misconceptions. Scoring 320 doesn’t guarantee admission if you're ranked far below the cut-off range for a program admitting only a few candidates,” he noted.
However, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has pushed back strongly against the initiative. In an interview with The Guardian, NANS Public Relations Officer, Adeyemi Ajasa, labeled the move as a misplaced priority.
Ajasa questioned the rationale behind introducing rankings while candidates still face additional tests like the Post-UTME. He argued that rather than making admissions more transparent, the policy could complicate it further. “Even universities don’t use such ranking within departments,” he said, suggesting that CGPA categories already suffice for measuring academic performance.
NANS urged JAMB to reconsider the decision and instead collaborate with educational institutions to develop more effective and practical solutions.
As debate continues, it’s clear that the 2025 Policy Meeting will have lasting effects on how Nigerian students are evaluated and admitted into higher institutions, one that may reshape the country’s approach to merit-based education.
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