The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that registration for the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) commences on Monday.
The Board also said it is ending the special registration concession previously granted to persons with albinism, following reports of abuse.
Speaking over the weekend in Ikeja, Lagos, at a meeting with commissioners for education from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, JAMB Registrar Prof. Isaq Oloyede explained that some candidates had used Artificial Intelligence to claim albino status in order to exploit the concession.
“We have stopped some concessions we gave albino candidates. This is because some are using AI to manipulate the registration process to look like they are albinos because of the consideration we gave them. Last year alone, over 7,000 claimed to be albinos. We have stopped special registration procedures for albinos,” he said.
The Board also addressed complaints about faith-based institutions imposing religious rules on students who applied under the pretense of a secular environment. Prof. Oloyede urged schools to declare their status from the outset. “Faith-based institutions should declare from the onset what they are, so that whoever applies there will know what he is going to meet there, but some don’t do that.
They will pretend to be secular in nature, but when students are now admitted, trouble will begin regarding religious instructions and injunctions. If you are a faith-based institution, say so. The law allows you to set up faith-based schools,” he said.
Prof. Oloyede also addressed cases of undergraduates taking UTME to switch courses or assist other candidates. “Students who are already in school but want to change courses and are applying again must declare and disclose their status. We have found out that some candidates already in school do write the examination for other candidates.
Last year, the candidate who scored the highest, out of curiosity, we did a background check on him and found out that he was a 300-level student in the university.
Henceforth, any candidate who is found engaging in such an act, and who failed to disclose that he is already in school but wants to change course, will be disqualified and also lose his current admission,” he said.
On underaged candidates, Prof. Oloyede clarified that only those meeting strict criteria are eligible. “There is attestation to be signed for underaged candidates. Last year, we had about 42,000 claiming to be underaged. After evaluation and assessment of their claims, only 78 were able to meet the criteria set and got admitted to universities.
For now, 16 years is the admission age and if anybody is not up to that age, he has to meet the requirement of scoring 80 per cent in the UTME and the post-UTME screening,” he explained.
To prevent exam malpractice, the Board has implemented new measures, including assigning computers permanently to specific centres and ensuring candidates are not posted to towns they did not select. “A computer that is registered in a particular centre will remain there and not transferable to another centre. Name, state and other vital information of a candidate is got from the NIN they submit for registration. We don’t misspell names because we don’t tamper with that,” Prof. Oloyede said.
He also provided an update on last year’s UTME, noting that 974,855 candidates have so far been admitted out of about 1.95 million who wrote the examination. The Board has also rewarded institutions that complied with its rules, giving over N2.4 billion to schools over the past 10 years, and voted to compensate schools where top candidates emerge.
On admission criteria for federal institutions, Prof. Oloyede said: “For federal government-owned institutions, it is 45 per cent merit; 20 per cent catchment area; 20 per cent educationally disadvantaged states and the rest for others. Each owner or state has the right to decide what their admission criteria will be. But for states, we encourage them to make at least 10 per cent for merit, not minding where the candidates come from. This is to diversify the student population and admit eggheads from different communities.”
He also criticized states setting up new universities when they had not filled their quotas in federal institutions.