Candidates sitting the 2027 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will soon find it impossible to submit an application with the wrong subject combination, as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) prepares a sweeping set of technology-driven reforms.
Registrar Professor Segun Aina announced the plans on Saturday in Abuja, after a five-kilometre fitness walk organised for board staff as part of preparations for the 2027 exam.
Candidates, he explained, have in past years picked subjects that did not fit their preferred courses, creating avoidable problems in their quest for admission. That is about to end.
“We are going to make that technically impossible, which means you cannot progress with your application if the subject combination is wrong,” he said.
The fix comes with a pre-registration mobile application that lets prospective candidates do much of the groundwork from home.
They will be able to pull their details from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), fill in their biodata, and choose their subjects, courses and institutions before ever stepping into an accredited centre for final registration.
Aina said this should cut the time spent at centres, especially during biometric capture.
The app will also offer something candidates have never had before: a look at the previous year’s entry marks for any course they are considering.
That, he said, should help them make realistic choices based on their abilities instead of uninformed picks that could jeopardise their chances of admission.
Easier registration, however, will not mean a softer exam.
Aina said the board has made concessions to ease the stress of correcting biodata, but will balance that flexibility with enhanced biometric checks at examination centres to prevent impersonation, malpractice and other irregularities.
“We have given up some ground and made some concessions to reduce trauma for the candidates… in exchange for that, we will be applying enhanced checks at the point of the examination,” he stated.
Candidates will also have a direct line to the board.
The computer-based test platform will feature a dedicated button for flagging questions they believe are faulty, allowing JAMB to investigate complaints and determine whether the questions were properly framed.
Aina was quick to add that a difficult question is not necessarily a faulty one, and that the feature is meant to give the board evidence-based feedback on the quality of its items.
Once the exam is over, candidates will be able to rate the Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres they used, a move the registrar said is meant to hold the private-sector operators accountable and keep standards high.
Together, the reforms aim to ease registration, curb malpractice and strengthen the credibility of the admission process. And according to Aina, there is more to come. “A lot of other innovations are coming,” he said.