The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released 279 results from the 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) that were previously withheld over suspected examination malpractice.
The development was announced on Thursday by Fabian Benjamin through a statement shared on his X account.
JAMB had started releasing the 2026 UTME results on April 20 after conducting the examination for more than 2.2 million candidates across the country. However, some results were withheld for further investigation over suspected malpractice.
According to the Board, the 279 results were eventually released after investigations found no prima facie evidence of wrongdoing against the affected candidates.
“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 stated.
JAMB explained that results linked to centres flagged for suspicious activities by its monitoring teams, as well as centres that received adverse reports, would remain withheld pending the conclusion of investigations.
The Board also warned that any candidate found guilty after the ongoing investigations would have their results cancelled.
Candidates whose results are still unavailable were advised to check their status by sending “UTMERESULT” to either 55019 or 66019 using the same phone number used during registration.
The 2026 UTME was conducted between April 16 and April 25 at accredited Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide.
JAMB 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 exams on April 17 and 18, bringing the total number of released results from the first three days of the examination to 1,897,692.
In May, the Board also commenced the process for candidates seeking changes of institution and course following the release of results.
Meanwhile, JAMB has retained the existing minimum admission benchmarks for the 2026 admission exercise while introducing a new policy expected to 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 retained 16 years as the minimum admission age into tertiary institutions.
In addition, JAMB announced that from the 2027 admission cycle, candidates applying to Colleges of Education for education-related and agriculture non-engineering programmes will no longer be required to sit for the UTME.
According to the Board, the policy is aimed at expanding access to teacher education and agriculture-focused programmes, although universities and polytechnics offering similar courses will still require UTME participation./
