FG sets 16 as minimum age for varsity admission

… warns against age falsification

… JAMB reports best performance as 80.69% score 160 and above in 2025

The Federal Government has officially fixed 16 years as the minimum age for admission into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, in a move aimed at ensuring academic preparedness and maturity among candidates.

Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, announced the decision during the 2025 Policy Meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) held on Tuesday in Abuja.

Alausa said the new age requirement seeks to align students’ cognitive development with the academic rigours of higher education, insisting that 16 years is now the non-negotiable threshold for university, polytechnic, and college of education admissions across the country.

“The issue of age at entry into tertiary institutions has generated much debate, but our position is clear. The entry age for admission into tertiary institutions is now officially pegged at 16 years. It was reduced from 18, which was to be effective from this year’s exercise, to the need for this compliance.

“This policy decision reflects a balance between cognitive maturity and academic preparedness. Sixteen years of age for admission is non-negotiable. Institutions are hereby directed to ensure strict compliance”, he noted.

Read also: JAMB, stakeholders peg 2024/2025 admission cut-off marks at 150 for Universities, 100 for Polytechnics

He, however, noted that rare exceptions could be made for gifted children who have demonstrated academic advancement beyond their age group. Such cases, he emphasized, must be properly documented and justified before consideration.

The minister also issued a stern warning to tertiary institutions against tampering with applicants’ age records in a bid to circumvent the directive.

According to him, institutions found falsifying age records would face sanctions, though specific penalties were not disclosed.

“We understand there may be a few exceptional cases, and provisions have already been made for legitimate exceptions, especially for gifted children or those with accelerated educational progress.

“However, this must be demonstrated and documented, and it must be justified.

“The ministry is firm in its resolve, and those attempting to circumvent this policy by altering age records will be sanctioned accordingly,” the minister said

JAMB has also recorded a performance leap in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), with 80.69% of candidates scoring 160 and above, the highest in the past six years.

This was revealed in the comparative performance statistics presented by JAMB, showing the percentage of candidates who attained key score benchmarks between 2018 and 2025.

According to the 2025 data out of the 1,945,395 candidates who sat for the exam, 29.45% scored 200 and above, an increase from 24.33% in 2024 and a sharp contrast to the 12.17% recorded in 2022.

80.69% scored 160 and above, marking the highest percentage since 2018, when only 74.39% of candidates crossed the same threshold.

97.76% scored 140 and above, up from 95.59% in 2024 and 90.67% in 2019. 99.91% scored 100 and above, maintaining the high performance trend seen in previous years.

Only 0.09% of candidates scored below 100, one of the lowest failure rates in the exam’s recent history.