The preference of most applicants for studying in the universities may deny many of them admission this year, our investigation has revealed
Having formed the impression that the university is the ultimate when it comes to higher education, a lot of students avoid the polytechnics, the monotechnics, the colleges of education and the Innovation Enterprise Institutions.
This development, our investigation has revealed, would earn many of the students extra years to secure admission into the universities of their choice. Many may also never gain university admission at the end of the day and may eventually be forced to attend one of those often rejected institutions listed above.
Findings by our correspondent from different sources revealed that each university had at least 15,000 applicants during their recent screening exercises.
While over 14,000 candidates jostled for 4000 admission slots at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, over 39, 711 candidates sat for the screening exercise at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State. The University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has just released 1, 295 names out of the over 18,000 applicants, who sat for the Post-UTME.
About 16,000 applicants were screened at the Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, for the 5, 800 available slots, according to the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Atiku Garba Yahaya.
A breakdown of the number of candidates who participated in the screening exercise into the different Federal universities in the 36 states shows that at least 10, 000 applicants would not get a slot in their preferred universities.
This cumulatively means that no fewer than 360, 000 students in the 36 states will not be given admission into their most preferred universities in 2018.
Justifying this development at the 2018 JAMB Policy Meeting, the Board’s Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said that 739,490 candidates scored above 180, which is the JAMB score for university applicants; meaning that the above number of candidates went through screening process in the 36 states.
Meanwhile, the National Universities Commission, according to its standard quota, revealed that only 400,000 candidates are likely to get admitted into the university each year.
“Out of the over 1.5 million students, who write UTME every year, we are barely able to make provision for only about 400,000 students,” the NUC said.
But from random interviews conducted by our correspondent, many students are still insisting on studying in universities, rather than the polytechnics or any other higher educational institution.
This simply implies that those insisting on studying in the universities and do not get space in the available slots in the universities will have to wait an extra year to sit for the next Joint Admission Matriculation Board examination.
Although JAMB has introduced Central Admission Processing System to ensure that spaces are optimally utilised, unlike what happened in 2017 when out of 1,024,487 available slots only 566, 641 were used, analysis shows that some students will still have to stay an extra year at home before securing university admission.
In the course of observation, our correspondent met a student in one of the polytechnics, who didn’t meet the JAMB score for university, but still went ahead to change her first choice to another university.
“I scored 175 in JAMB, but I want to go to the university. The mistake I made was to change my first choice to Federal University Oye, Ekiti, instead of a polytechnic that would assure me admission with my score,” Omowonuola said.
Another student, Samuel Adeleke, waited unsuccessfully for eight years to secure admission into the University of Lagos, but eventually had to resort to going to the Kwara State Polytechnic in 2017, after his hope of entering UNILAG was dashed.
Adeleke said, “I waited to gain admission into Unilag for eight years. I finished 2011 and I and my friends said it was Unilag or any other university. Everyone wants to go to the university and I wanted to too, but I preferred Unilag, the bubbling school.
“When I waited, I had to finally write UTME into the Kwara Poly and I was taken. It’s not like I did not write UTME for polytechnics in my years of waiting for Unilag. I did not just write them with seriousness because I wanted Unilag.”
While the students have their reasons for insisting on going to study in the universities, some parents also insist that their children attend universities rather than polytechnics, colleges of education and Innovative enterprise institutions.
Similarly, Titilayo Oba, who is still seeking admission into a university disclosed that she had finished her secondary education since 2015 but due to her parents’ insistence that she attended a university, she had been at home.
“I finished secondary school in Kaduna since 2015 and I have been waiting to gain admission since. I wrote at University of Ibadan twice but no results. This year, I still picked UI and Federal university of Lokoja hoping again. My father insists I go to the university but I want to study nursing,” she said.
Parents as cause of delayed admission
From our findings, many parents prefer their children to gain admission into the university rather than the polytechnic, college of education and the IEIs.
Their belief is that the university system provides a broader form of education than the polytechnics and other higher institutions. Besides that, they are of the opinion that attending a university is more prestigious.
For a parent, Mr. Olorunfemi James, studying in the polytechnic is like a waste of money.
He argued that even most of university graduates were rarely recognised, not to talk of polytechnic graduates, adding that even polytechnic graduates usually seek admission into the university in order to enhance their chances of getting better job offers and good salaries.
“My children are waiting for admission into the University of Lagos; I want them to go the university because of the situation in our country. University graduates are easily recognised in Nigeria, they have a better offer. Most polytechnic graduates go through the stress of taking form to go into the university to further their studies and acquire degree certificates,” James said.
Speaking in the same vein, Mrs. Jemina Yusuf, claimed that universities had better offers than other schools.
“The university is better. I did not go to school but my children should be able to boast that they graduated from the university in our family lineage,” she said.
Educationists link issue to Nigeria’s problems
The Director, Entrepreneurship Department, Lagos State Polytechnic, Mr. Aderogba Ademola, said that the policy of the government and misplacement of value was responsible for the gap between universities and other tertiary institutions.
Ademola said, “When Government formulates a policy and the policy puts university graduates at advantage, it will be natural for everyone to want to go the university as against the polytechnics. There are certain levels you can reach as university graduates compared to the polytechnic graduates. When you are employed as a polytechnic graduate alongside a university graduate, you may not get to the level the university graduate will get to. If you have been there, you won’t advise anyone to go to the polytechnic.
“Most of the leaders in government universities pass through university; so when it’s time for recruitment, they are always biased.”
He lamented that the society had misplaced the values of technical schools that could boost the country’s economy.
“Our society today do not know the value of some things. In Nigeria today, we favour unnecessary ego, people whose value is all about money. We have a displaced value. There is no equal compensation for work but compensation should be done based on work and not ego. Sometimes, those that go to the polytechnic perform better than the university graduates, but they give morerespect to the university graduates. That is the misplacement of value. Countries like Germany make products of technical schools their head. The university is just about theory and not practical,“ he added.
Ademola, therefore, linked the issue to Nigeria’s problems, saying the students who clamour for university education end up becoming facilitators of the problem in the process of waiting.
He said, “The younger ones roaming about the society waiting to go to the university become problems in the society. There will not be jobs in Nigeria if this goes on, the industries create job and not the government. When we keep encouraging people with little technical knowledge, we will have less industries. People that have technical knowledge will be the ones to create industries, which will expand the industry for job increment.
“University graduates only learn theory and design, which can’t build industries. Government should change the policy of placing importance on universities against other schools.”
Similarly, a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, said an awareness should be made towards filling the gap created between universities and other
institutions.
He also said the mentality that the university is higher had made students to continue to clamour for admission into the institutions with limited spaces.
