UTME 2025: JAMB registers over 1.2 million candidates in three weeks

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said it has registered 1.2 million (1,290,715) candidates for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) in 19 days.

In its weekly bulletin published on Monday, JAMB said it registered 201,867 candidates in the first week, 560,025 in the second week, and 528,823 in the third week.

The UTME registration, an entrance examination into Nigerian tertiary institutions, began on Monday, 3 February and continues until Saturday, 8 March.

The board said it has paid N903.5 million to Computer Based Test (CBT) centres –N141 million in the first week, N392 million in the second week and N370 million in the third week.

Annually, JAMB registers an average of 1.5 million candidates seeking admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. Last year, the board had over 1.9 million candidates for the UTME, with 76 per cent of the candidates scoring below 200 of the 400 obtainable scores.

Mock Trial

This year, the board also introduced the UTME Mock Trial for underage students who are not eligible to register for the UTME. The Mock Trial is to help them prepare ahead of the actual UTME after they must have reached the age of 16.

Last year, the Ministry of Education pegged the age for admission into Nigerian tertiary institutions at 16.

Suspension of Law in selected universities

Meanwhile, JAMB has said it will not be conducting admissions for the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) programme in eight universities for the 2025/2026 academic session after the law programmes in the institutions were suspended by the Council of Legal Education (CLE), the highest decision making body for legal education in Nigeria.

The affected institutions are Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin, Kwara State; Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State; Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State; Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State; and Taraba State University, Jalingo, Taraba State.

Others include Arthur Jarvis University, Akpabuyo, Cross River State; Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State; and Nigerian Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State.