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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Nigeria: Universities Under Admit Students By Boco Edet

Contrary to popular public opinion that universities overstretch their admission capacities, many federal universities admitted fewer students than they ought to in the 2010/2011 admission exercise.

Daily Trust investigations revealed that several universities did not fill their carrying capacity as set by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

According to the report on the conduct of the 2010/2011 admissions to tertiary institutions compiled by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) some top universities with the most applicants eventually admitted even less students than recommended.

For example Ahmadu Bello University which has a carrying capacity of 6,080 students could only admit 3,612 students even though 89,760 students applied for admission there.

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) eventually admitted 4,843 students against its carrying capacity of 5978 students although 70,933 students applied for admission into the school.

88, 176 students applied for admission into the University of Nigeria Nsukka but only 5,400 were admitted which was 570 students shy of its carrying capacity.

Bayero University Kano (BUK) has a carrying capacity 5,682 students but only 4,695 students gained admission though 40,848 students applied for admission into the university.

Other federal universities that admitted fewer students than their carrying capacities include University of Ilorin, University of Jos, University of Calabar, University of Port- Harcourt, University of Maiduguri, Federal University of Technology Akure, University of Abuja and University of Uyo among others.

Only a few exceeded their carrying capacities by a small margin like University of Lagos, University of Benin, Federal University of Technology Owerri, and University of Agriculture Markurdi.

A total of 1,007,432 candidates who sat for the 2011 UTME scored 180 and above which was the cut-off mark. Director of Academic Standards NUC Prof Alhassan Bichi explains why despite the many students who applied, federal universities admitted less than they should have.


"Every day we hear that the universities are not taking enough students, which is not true. People base that argument on the number of students that go and take JAMB. 1.4million this year, how many of them got the cut-off of 180 and above but if you even leave that aside how many of them got the 5 credits including Mathematics and English as required by national policy for admission into university?

You saw the NECO results. Only 22 per cent of the people who took NECO were able to get credits in Mathematics and English. Without these credits you cannot get admission into the university.

Only about 20 per cent of the universities were able to fill their quota for the 201o/2011 admission exercise.

They would admit the students but when they come for registration they do not have the five credits in the appropriate subjects. I think we need to declare emergency on mathematics and English. A number of universities could not fill the quota because the students were not qualified including private universities, the one people pay money."

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