The Federal Government has permitted tertiary institutions to offer admission to students who are 16 years and above in the 2023/24 admission exercise.
The new age of 18 for admission will take effect next year.
The decisions were reached at the ongoing policy meeting on 2023/2024 admissions in Abuja.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman had pegged the admission age of undergraduates to 18.
But following protests from stakeholders at the ongoing Policy meeting organised by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the minister backtracked and agreed that students who are not 18 but had already written the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination be offered admission.
The minister said: “I can work with that but I want to remind you of one thing, even that argument cannot stand if we want to go by the law which states 6-3-3-4 as our system of education, it won’t stand but for practical reasons, for this year, I will allow it to stand.”
