JAMB Cut-Off Mark for Mechanical Engineering: Published Data

Students sometimes ask whether Mechanical Engineering has a "safe score". There is no national answer, because each university sets its own figure. What you can do is learn how to read the figures that are published, and that is what this page is for.

Layer one: the JAMB national minimum

Every year JAMB holds a policy meeting with university heads and other stakeholders to fix the lowest UTME score at which an institution may admit. According to Legit.ng's report of the meeting held in Abuja on 11 May 2026, the minimums for the 2026/2027 admission session are:

Nairametrics, previewing the same meeting, reported that the 2025 minimum for universities was also 150. This is a floor for the whole country and says nothing about any one course. Our guide on what JAMB score you need to get admission explains how the floor, the school's own cut-off and the final ranking fit together. Figures for the 2027/2028 session have not been announced, and JAMB publishes its decisions on jamb.gov.ng.

Layer two: each school's cut-off

Individual universities publish their own cut-offs for each programme, and these differ from school to school and from year to year. One official example is the University of Lagos, which published its UTME merit admission cut-off marks for 2025/2026 in October 2025.

UNILAG's 3 October 2025 page lists Mechanical Engineering at 78.525 on its general merit list, third highest of the twelve engineering, law, commerce and health programmes we compared. Its six state figures run from 66.3 (Ondo) to 75.85 (Ogun).

The page does not define its columns, so treating the first as the general figure is our reading of the layout, and it does not state the scale. The values look like aggregates and not marks out of 400. At this school, Mechanical Engineering's merit figure was a little below Electrical/Electronics at 79.5 and above Civil Engineering at 75.625.

Other reported figures

The table below collects the other figures we could find for the same programme, with the type of source. Press-only figures are reported, not confirmed by us against the university's own notice.

The press reports for Oye-Ekiti and Otuoke do not state a scale. In both, Mechanical Engineering appears alongside other engineering programmes, but the numbers (66.4 and 182) cannot be compared with each other or with UNILAG's. Use only the figure for your own target school.

Reading these numbers without being misled

Three habits will save you from the most common errors.

1. Compare within one university only. A figure of 78 at one school and a figure of 190 at another are not on the same scale, so putting them side by side tells you nothing. Several of the notices we cite do not state their scale, and we have not guessed.
2. Match the programme title exactly. Schools use titles such as Economics and Development Studies or Computer Science and Informatics, and a figure for one title does not carry over to a neighbouring programme.
3. Note the year and the status. Everything here is for the 2025/2026 session. Cut-offs for the next session are set afresh, and a figure reported by a news outlet can differ from the school's final notice.

Layer three: the ranking on the day

A published cut-off is a threshold, not a guarantee. After the cut-off, many universities screen candidates with a post-UTME and combine the results into an aggregate. The formula differs by school, so use your target school's own notice. Our post-UTME aggregate calculator guide shows how to work one out. If more qualified candidates apply than there are places, meeting the cut-off exactly may not be enough, and nobody can honestly give you a national safe score for a course.

What the numbers mean for your plan

1. Treat 150 as the entry ticket, not the target. It lets a university consider you; it does not make you competitive for most courses.
2. Check three or four schools you actually want, on their own websites, for the latest session, and write down their scale.
3. Prepare for the screening as well. Where a post-UTME is held, it can move your final position, so do not wait for the UTME result to start.
4. Keep a backup. If your first choice is out of reach, a related course may be possible; read about changing your course, and remember that the subjects you wrote must fit the new course.

Cut-offs for the 2027/2028 session have not been announced. Do not rely on any website that claims to know the 2027 figure.

Make sure you have the right subjects

Every list we read gives the same four UTME subjects for this course. See JAMB subject combination for Mechanical Engineering.

No guarantees

We cannot promise that any score will win a place. What you control is your preparation: cover the syllabus, practise under time pressure, and work on the topics that cost you marks.

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