FG Considers 18 Year Minimum Age for Admission into Nigerian Universities

Education Minister, Professor Maman Tahir, says federal government would review the minimum age for admission of candidates into tertiary institutions, especially universities in the country.

The minister who suggested 18 years of age as the minimum, said most of the students in the country’s universities are too young.

The minister, speaking while monitoring the conduct of the ongoing unified tertiary matriculation examination in Abuja, said most of the candidates writing the examination are too young.

Tahir claimed that some of those writing the UTME Examination are 15 years old, and if admitted would not be mentally prepared for the rigor of university education.

According to the minister, some of those being admitted into the universities are too young to understand what the university education was all about.

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He said this accounted for some of the problems facing universities in the country.

Corroborating the minister’s position on the benchmark of 18 years for admission to tertiary institutions, the JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said 18 years is in line with the 6-3-3-4 education system.

The Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, who was in the monitoring team applauded the conduct of the 2024 UTME, particularly, the introduction of online examinations as a way of checking malpractices.

He said the Computer Based Test (CBT) had reduced examination malpractices to the barest minimum.

Mr Sununu commended the Board for setting a simple but high standard for the examination.