The University Grants Commission has released the Z-score cut-off marks for state university admission for the 2025/26 academic year, based on the results of the 2025 G.C.E. Advanced Level examination.
The marks were published on Saturday (1) morning as a downloadable document listing the minimum Z-score required for each course of study. The list covers medicine, dental surgery, veterinary science, biochemistry and molecular biology, agriculture, agricultural technology and management, and food science and nutrition among other degree programmes, broken down by the university offering each course.
Cut-offs are set separately for each administrative district rather than nationally. Under Sri Lanka’s admission policy, 40% of places on each course are filled on all-island merit, 55% are allocated across the 25 districts in proportion to population, and the remaining 5% are reserved for the 16 districts classified as educationally disadvantaged. That means the minimum Z-score for the same degree at the same university differs from one district to the next, and applicants must read the figure for their own district alongside the all-island merit mark. Some course-district combinations are marked “NQC”, indicating no qualified candidates.
Released on schedule
The release meets the timetable the UGC set out in June, when Vice Chairman Prof. Wasantha Liyanage said cut-offs would be published in the first week of August. At that point 92,043 candidates had applied for state university places, of whom about 42,937 were expected to be selected — a ratio of roughly 47%, in line with recent years. Those figures were given ahead of the computation and have not been restated in Saturday’s announcement.
Prof. Liyanage said in June that selected students would be enrolled during the second, third and fourth weeks of August, with academic activities beginning in early September depending on the institution. The numbers align with the May parliamentary briefing in which the Prime Minister told MPs that around 42,937 students would be admitted in September 2026.
The Commission has been compressing the admissions calendar this year, having published the admissions handbook at midnight on the day applications opened. A shorter gap between the A-Level results and the start of undergraduate study has been a long-standing student demand.
Candidates should verify their eligibility against the official UGC document rather than secondary listings, and check both the all-island merit figure and the cut-off for their district.
