Lagos Raises the Bar on University Admission Requirements

Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu’s administration has drawn a clear line between Lagos State and the rest of the country on university admissions, with the state government announcing that no candidate scoring below 185 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination will gain entry into any of its three state owned Universities.

The position was made public on Wednesday by Commissioner for Tertiary Education Tolani Sule at a ministerial press briefing held at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, as part of activities marking the third year of Governor Sanwo Olu’s second term.

The announcement places Lagos in direct opposition to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, which approved 150 out of 400 as the national minimum cut off mark for University admissions this year.

Sule was unambiguous in his assessment of that figure. “For JAMB to announce 150 as the cut off mark out of the 400 obtainable marks in the UTME for this year’s admission seekers is very low,” he stated.

The commissioner argued that Lagos, given its educational standing, could not apply the same standards used for states with weaker academic indices.

“Lagos cannot be considered educationally disadvantaged to the extent of bringing its cut off mark down to meet what Sokoto or Zamfara State requires,” he said.

He acknowledged that JAMB designed the 150 benchmark to accommodate candidates across all six geopolitical zones, but maintained that Lagos Institutions operated on a different level entirely.

“To us in Lagos State, the cut off marks approved by JAMB look too low for our Universities. None of our three Universities is admitting any student who scored below 185 in the UTME,” Sule disclosed.

The commissioner also used the occasion to highlight the state government’s broader push to expand tertiary education access. Under Sanwo Olu, the number of state Universities has grown from one to three, with a fourth Institution already in the pipeline.

“Increasing our Universities from one to three is still part of what the state governor is doing to provide more educational platforms and opportunities for Lagos residents,” he noted.

“And increasing the number to four is still part of this effort by the state government to allow all admission seekers to get tertiary education in Lagos,” Sule added.