Universities admissions: JAMB reveals popular Nigerian universities

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board
(JAMB) in reaction to reports going round has
stated that it does not use students’ checklist
in determining applicants’ preferred schools.
According to Economic Confidential a
magazine, Unilorin had the highest student
applicants of 103,238 (males – 51, 082 and
females – 52, 156).
The report said that academic stability,
popularity, affordability, available facilities and
quality of lecturers were factors students
considered before choosing their preferred
institutions.
Fabian Benjamin, JAMB spokesperson,
speaking to Premium Times on Tuesday,
October 4, said the students’ checklist as
outlined in the report was not determined by
JAMB.
Benjamin said: “JAMB has no way of
determining these factors from information
available to us through the frequency of
schools chosen by Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination (UTME)
candidates.”
“What we do each year, is to roll out data on
the institutions with the highest number of
applicants. For some years now, the University
of Ilorin has been topping that chart, this does
not mean that the school is the best in the
country. It just shows students’ preferences.”
Unilorin goes on Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) strike actions, a problem
that plagues many federal universities in the
country.
Also, Unilorin was said to have one of
the fastest academic calendars of all
institutions in the country.
However, in the 2016/2017 global ranking
carried out by Times Higher Education
(THE), University of Ibadan was the only
Nigerian university that made the list at 801.
Teaching, research citations of scholarly
publications, industry income and international
outlook were the factors for determining the
ranking. Yet, for 2016, Unilorin surpassed the
University of Ibadan in preferred student
choices.
As for the determinants earlier mentioned by
Economic Confidential, Benjamin said JAMB
was not in a position to know why students
choose their institutions.
University of Ilorin, University of Benin, Ahmadu
Bello University, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
and Bayero University, Kano were the most
popular federal university choices for 2016 by
magazine.
Nasarawa State University, Imo State
University, Kaduna State University, Delta State
University and Adekunle Ajasin University were
also the most popular state university choices
for 2016.
While the most popular private university
choices for 2016 are Covenant University, Afe
Babalola University, BabC@.ck University,
Igbinedion University and Bowen University.