By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has pushed back the arrival time for candidates sitting the first session of the 2027 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., in a move designed to ease the safety and logistical burden on candidates travelling long distances to their Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.
Under the revised schedule, candidates in the first session are now expected to arrive by 7:30 a.m., with the examination itself running from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Subsequent sessions will proceed according to the Board’s existing scheduling framework.
The change was announced following JAMB’s 2026 Management and IT Retreat, held in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State. The retreat brought together the Board’s management, state coordinators, heads of outstation offices and other stakeholders to review the conduct of the UTME and the Board’s broader operations.
According to the Board, the decision responds directly to public concern over the risks candidates faced travelling before dawn to reach test centres. Officials said a later start time was expected not only to improve candidates’ safety and convenience, but also to reduce absenteeism linked to the difficulty of the earlier schedule.
The arrival-time adjustment was one of several outcomes of the retreat, which examined ways to strengthen the efficiency, safety, credibility and overall candidate experience of the UTME amid the examination’s growing scale and complexity.
JAMB said preparations for the 2027 UTME are already underway, even though the examination remains months away, as the Board seeks to build on lessons from previous exercises.
Candidates and members of the public have been urged to note the change and await further official communication on the full 2027 UTME timetable and related arrangements.
