The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed all public universities in Nigeria to conclude their 2025 admission processes by October 31, 2025.
In a bulletin released on Monday, JAMB also announced that private universities must complete admissions by November 30, while all other tertiary institutions, both public and private, have until December 31, 2025 to wrap up their processes.
These deadlines were approved at the 2025 Policy Meeting on Admissions, chaired by the Minister of Education. According to JAMB, the goal is to stabilize the academic calendar and ensure fair and timely access to admission opportunities across all institutions.
“Even where an institution is not yet ready to commence the new academic session, such an institution should conduct its admission and archive it,” the board stated.
JAMB also urged institutions conducting post-UTME screenings to do so promptly, in order to meet the new schedule.
The 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results were officially released in May 2025. The UTME, scored out of 400, examines candidates in four subjects — with the Use of English mandatory and three others chosen based on the applicant’s intended course of study.
From 2020 to 2024, over 8.9 million candidates sat for the annual entrance exam, but only about 2.7 million secured admission, leaving more than six million applicants without placements — many of whom had to re-register in subsequent years.
JAMB’s new directive seeks to improve efficiency, reduce backlog, and streamline the transition from secondary to tertiary education for Nigerian students.
