Everybody Wants University Place

Everybody Wants University Place
on january 14, 2014 at 5:24 am in editorial
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THE Joint Admission and Matriculation Board,
JAMB, has decided that candidates in the 2014
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME,
would compulsorily register only one university, one
polytechnic, one college of education and one
innovative enterprise institute. It is considered a
solution to challenges with admissions to higher
institutions.
Candidates formerly had a second preferred
institution. Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB registrar
explained, “From our experience, universities refuse
to take students who make them a second choice.
Last year, vice chancellors of universities, rectors
of polytechnics decided that students should only
pick one university, one polytechnic, one college of
education and one innovative enterprise institute
when applying to write the UTME. If they do not
follow these instructions, they cannot apply.”
Prof Ojerinde expects the move to solve the
admissions crisis. “We also hope that this will curb
the admission crisis. Often, there are spaces in
tertiary institutions other than universities, but
everyone wants to go to the university,” he said.
What the JAMB registrar calls “admission crisis” is
not the fact that only one-third of those who applied
for university admission in 2013 got places.
Extortion of candidates causes the empty spaces in
schools while over applications, to some schools, is
part of the crisis. The perceived difference in the
quality of education different universities offer
informs candidates’ choices.
Official discrimination against non-university
graduates is the biggest factor. It starts with the
admission cut off points – 180 and above for
universities, 160-169 for polytechnics, 150-159 for
colleges of education, and innovative enterprise
institutes. The impression is that candidates for
institutions other than universities are inferior. The
quality of facilities and teaching staff in
polytechnics, colleges of education and innovation
and enterprise institutes reflect the discrimination.
Nigeria rates teachers less intelligent than other
professionals. The low cut off point says so.
Nigeria is already paying dearly for her decisions.
Fewer candidates are applying to polytechnics and
colleges of education. How would we fill the gaps
this would produce?
According to UTME, in 2013, 1,670,833 candidates
applied to universities, 28,977 candidates to
polytechnics, and 28,445 to colleges of education
for 520,000 places in over 128 federal, state and
private universities; 76 federal, state and private
polytechnics; and 63 colleges of education.
Polytechnics and colleges of education candidates
were 3.4 per cent of the application received. The
57,422 candidates for all the polytechnics and
colleges of education were slightly higher than
52,608 applicants to the University of Ibadan, which
was the 10th most preferred university.
Candidates’ choices reflect the premium Nigeria
places on university education. The appropriate
response should be policies that would establish the
importance of each segment of education by its
contributions to society.