JAMB to show candidates more admission details, allow NIN-linked name corrections
- JAMB says candidates will now see detailed progress on their admission status instead of bare 'not admitted' messages.
- Candidates who lost their registered phone or email can update them, and name or date-of-birth errors can be fixed through NIMC.
- Registrar Segun Aina warned that anyone using the new flexibility to fake an identity will face the law.
Candidates waiting for admission into universities and other tertiary institutions will soon get a clearer picture of where their applications stand, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said.
JAMB Registrar Professor Segun Aina announced the changes on Wednesday at the board's Abuja Zonal Office, where he met with Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates during JAMB's 2026 Customer Week.
Until now, a candidate checking their status could see only "not admitted" or "admission in progress", with little to explain the delay. Aina said the board has reworked the system so applicants can see the details behind their status.
"Instead of just seeing 'not admitted' or 'admission in progress' and just waiting and being nervous and being traumatised, we now have a situation where you can see the details," he said.
Fixing names, phone numbers and emails
JAMB is also loosening two bottlenecks that have trapped candidates for years.
Candidates who can no longer reach the phone number or email address they used to register can now change them through the board's approved process, the registrar said. Those details had been treated as unique identifiers, which made changes difficult.
For errors in names, dates of birth and other personal records, JAMB has agreed a route with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). A candidate first corrects the details with NIMC, then aligns the updated record with their JAMB profile.
Aina said the old restriction had blocked people who had finished their degrees from moving on. "Thousands of people were stuck. They completed their degrees; they couldn't go to university because this wasn't possible. It is now possible," he said.
He, however, drew a hard line against anyone using the window to fake an identity. "If you would like to change your entire name, we will keep track of you," he warned, adding that offenders would feel "the full weight of the law".
Critical thinking test still under study
Aina also said a committee led by Professor Nwogu, a psychometrician, is looking at whether the UTME should test life skills and critical thinking, and whether those should be separate papers or folded into existing subjects. No decision has been taken, he said.
He stressed that the UTME is only a gateway. "Our core is the admissions exercise itself," he said, adding that candidates should not need connections to win a place.
On scores, he said a UTME result ranks a candidate against others in the same year rather than measuring ability on its own. "It is not how good you are that your JAMB score speaks to. It is more about how you rank against others," he said.
What happens next: Candidates with wrong personal details should start with NIMC before returning to their JAMB profile. JAMB said full procedures are on its website and social media pages. The critical thinking proposal waits on the committee's report.
