WHY ADMISSION TO NIGERIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IS LIKE GOING TO THIRD WORLD WAR

BARRIERS TO UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS IN NIGERIA

IN SUMMARY FORM( ADDITIONAL TO LOW SCORES)

1.    Demand  for university places exceeds supply by far .   

2.    Limited information on admission  to students.    For some students even the  JAMB BROCHURE is an additional source of confusion.

3.    Inexperienced guidance councilors at schools.

4.    Many schools  do not see the relevance of holding thorough and well-monitored enlightenment sessions for final year students

5.   Wrong information through mistakes committed at registration centers.

6.   Making wrong choices of  courses,universities and subjects to take in the Jamb exam.   Such wrong choices include:

-picking a course that requires difficult examination subjects.

-avoiding  some courses with relatively low cut-off scores because they are not “chic” or popular.

-choosing a course affected by waivers  mistakenly not noticed in the brochure

-choosing a course not available in the institution of choice at the time of exam or thereafter.

-choosing institutions which usually have the highest numbers of applicants each year.

-choosing two Federal Universities.

-picking a Federal university out of one’s “catchment area”.

-choosing a university whose location and distance makes it almost impossible for self parents or relations to follow-up as and when due.

-wasting your choices by choosing one of the private universities which are likely to accept you without choosing them initially.   If you pass their screening which is generally less stringent and you have their fees it is not likely that they will bother about your initial choices like the federal universities do.

-by not studying the brochure strategically.   For instance,Mass Comm at Delsu used to be a course in the Faculty of Arts and did not require taking of maths in the Jamb exam.   On the other hand,Mass Comm at Unilag is a Social Science course requiring the taking of maths compulsorily.

-wrong combination of Jamb subjects leading to  poor results.

7. Lying about one’s state of origin or failing to produce requested documents such as statement of results,WAEC/NECO certificate,testimonial etc.   Once you lie about being Kelani of Lagos State whereas you are Kelani of Ogun state you might need to lie up to 9 other times on the way to your admission or rejection if discovered.