The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced that candidates seeking admission into Education programmes and Agriculture-related non-engineering courses will no longer be required to sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

JAMB disclosed this in a post shared on its official X handle on Monday during its ongoing policy meeting on admissions.

“Candidates seeking admissions into Education Programmes and Agriculture non-Engineering Courses are now exempted from UTME,” the board stated.

The decision marks a major change in Nigeria’s tertiary admission process, as the UTME has traditionally remained the standard examination for admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education nationwide.

JAMB’s annual policy meeting is usually convened to determine admission procedures, cut-off marks and guidelines for tertiary institutions.

Although exemptions from the UTME already exist for certain categories such as Direct Entry applicants, the latest policy is regarded as one of the broadest waivers introduced by the board in recent years.

The development is expected to create alternative admission pathways for candidates seeking admission into education and agriculture-related courses outside engineering disciplines, likely through institutional screening and other qualification processes.

Education and Agriculture courses have historically recorded lower demand and cut-off marks compared to highly competitive programmes such as Medicine, Law and Engineering.