JAMB scraps affiliated degree courses in colleges of education

 

… mandates NCE-only entry from 2026/27

 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has shut the door on affiliated degree programmes in colleges of education, a policy shift meant to end decades-long university partnership model, and reshape the teacher education pathway.

The decision is contained in JAMB’s NCE/ND Agric Registration Guidelines released by the Office of the Registrar in June 2026, which takes effect from the 2026/2027 academic session.

“With effect from 2026/7 session, no admission into 100 or 200 Level is allowed into any college of education. All entrants are through NCE,” the board stated in the guidelines.

The policy change basically restructures Nigeria’s teacher education architecture and eliminates a decades-old route through which thousands of students annually earn university degrees from within the colleges.

Under the new framework, the Nigeria Certificate in Education becomes the sole entry point into all colleges of education, with the board explicitly barring admissions into 100 or 200 level for any affiliated programme.

The move ends an arrangement under which colleges of education partnered with conventional universities to award bachelor’s degrees, a model that had operated for decades and provided an alternative to the main university admission pipeline.

For many candidates, particularly those unable to secure placements in federal and state universities, affiliated college programmes represented a viable and cost-effective degree pathway.

JAMB has outlined relief measures for candidates already caught in the transition. Those who selected affiliated colleges of education for degree programmes through Direct Entry may apply for a change of institution at no cost, transfer to the parent university to which their programme is affiliated, or have their second-choice institution elevated to first choice for processing purposes.

Candidates seeking 100-level admission through the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination face similar options, with the additional possibility of migrating to the NCE programme. The board set June 22 as the deadline for institution change requests.

Candidates opting for the NCE route will be required to obtain an O’Level verification code from the relevant examination body and pay a registration fee of N700 on the JAMB portal, a deliberately low threshold that appears designed to ease the transition.

Beyond the structural changes, JAMB has introduced mandatory O’Level result verification for all NCE applicants, with fees set at N1,500 for candidates with results from one sitting and N2,000 for two sittings.

The board also flagged that any candidate who opts for the NCE route and is subsequently recommended for admission will have all ongoing UTME or Direct Entry processes suspended, a provision that signals the finality of the choice and raises the stakes for candidates weighing their options.

JAMB directed all Professional Registration Centres, Institutional Professional Registration Centres and its field officers to study and enforce the new guidelines without exception.

The policy recalibrates the role of colleges of education in Nigeria’s tertiary landscape, repositioning them firmly as NCE-awarding institutions rather than hybrid providers of both teacher certificates and affiliated degrees.

Whether the shift will channel more qualified candidates into the teaching profession, or simply redirect demand towards conventional universities, will depend on how the labour market and prospective students respond to a narrowed institutional offering.