Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released 279 results from the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that were previously withheld for investigation.
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The development was disclosed on Thursday, May 21, by JAMB’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, through a statement shared on his X account.
JAMB had begun releasing the results of the 2026 UTME on April 20 after conducting the examination for over 2.2 million candidates nationwide.
However, the Board withheld some results over suspected cases of examination malpractice pending further investigations.
What JAMB is saying
According to JAMB, the 279 results earlier withheld for additional scrutiny were released after investigations showed no prima facie case of malpractice against the affected candidates.
The Board, however, noted that some other results had been cancelled outright where evidence of examination malpractice was established.
- “The release follows ongoing investigations into cases of suspected examination malpractice. While some results have been outrightly cancelled where evidence of malpractice was established, others have been released where the Board found no prima facie case against the affected candidates,” Benjamin said.
JAMB further explained that results from centres flagged by its monitoring team for suspicious activities, as well as centres that received adverse reports, would remain withheld until investigations are concluded. The Board warned that any candidate found culpable after investigations would have their results cancelled.
The examination body also advised candidates whose results are still unavailable to check their status by sending “UTMERESULT” to either 55019 or 66019 using the same phone number used during registration.
Get up to speed
The 2026 UTME was conducted between April 16 and April 25 across accredited Computer-Based Test centres nationwide.
- JAMB had initially released 632,752 results for candidates who sat for the examination on April 16. It later published another 1,264,940 results for candidates who wrote the examinations on April 17 and 18, bringing the total number of released results from the first three days of the exercise to 1,897,692.
In May, JAMB began the process for change of institution and course for candidates who sat for the 2026 UTME.
What you should know
JAMB has retained the existing minimum admission benchmarks for the 2026 admission exercise while also unveiling a new policy that will take effect from 2027.
- Under the current arrangement, universities and Colleges of Nursing Sciences will continue to admit candidates with a minimum UTME score of 150, while polytechnics will accept candidates who score at least 100.
- The Board also maintained 16 years as the minimum admission age for entry into tertiary institutions.
- In addition, JAMB announced that from the 2027 admission cycle, candidates seeking admission into Colleges of Education for education-related and agriculture non-engineering programmes would no longer be required to sit for the UTME.
According to the Board, the policy is designed to expand access to teacher education and agriculture-focused programmes, although universities and polytechnics offering similar courses will still require UTME participation.
