"Matriculated students seeking to change institutions via the 2026 UTME must disclose their current status or risk losing both their old and new admission slots."
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has addressed reports regarding the eligibility of currently enrolled university students to retake the UTME. In a statement released in early February 2026, the Board's Public Communication Advisor, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, clarified that undergraduates are not barred from registering for the 2026 UTME or Direct Entry. However, the Board has introduced a 'Mandatory Disclosure' policy. Candidates who are already matriculated in any tertiary institution must declare their status during the 2026 registration. Failure to do so is now classified as an admission offense, punishable by the immediate forfeiture of both the current admission and any new admission offered through the 2026 cycle.
This policy is a strategic response to 'admission hoarding' and the rise of 'professional exam takers'—students who repeatedly sit for the UTME to help others or to occupy multiple slots across different universities. For a genuine student seeking a 'Change of Course' or 'Change of Institution,' this disclosure acts as a legal bridge. Once a new admission is secured and accepted via CAPS for the 2026/2027 session, the previous admission automatically ceases to exist. This prevents a single candidate from holding two matriculation numbers across different institutions, which has been a persistent data integrity issue for the Ministry of Education.
For the 2026 candidates, this rule tightens the admission loop. It means that the 'safety net' of holding onto an old admission while testing the waters with a new UTME score is effectively gone. Students must now be certain of their decision to switch, as the system is designed to detect prior matriculation records through the NIMC-JAMB integration. Investigative findings show that JAMB's automated system can now cross-reference 2026 registrations with the database of previous years' matriculation lists. Consequently, students who attempt to hide their current enrollment risk being blacklisted from the 2026/2027 admission exercise entirely, reducing their chances of a successful transition to a preferred course of study.
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