Stakeholders have brought forth
solutions to the crisis of limited admission spaces. This is coming days
after the Supervising Minister of Education said that the carrying capacity of Nigerian Universities has increased tremendously, claiming they can admit over 1 million candidates.
Read the full details of this news as reported by VanguardNGR:
In the Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination, (UTME) brochure, candidates seeking admission into
Nigeria’s tertiary institutions are listed under the following
categories: University, Polytechnic/Monotechnic, College of Education
(CoE) and Innovation Enterprise Institutions (IEIs). Innovation
Enterprise Institutions are institutions approved by the Federal
Government of Nigeria to provide a veritable alternative route to higher
education.
As at 2013, Nigeria had 40 federal
universities, 38 state universities, 50 private universities, 128
polytechnics and monotechnics, 117 Colleges of Education and 57
Innovation Enterprise Institutions, bringing the total number of
tertiary institutions to 430. Nevertheless, many Nigerian students
seeking tertiary education are more interested in university education.
In 2010/2011, Nigeria had 112
universities with carrying capacity of 450,000 and 1,493,611 applicants.
Thus, the admitting capacity was 30.13 per cent of the total number of
applicants. This means that at best, only 30.13 per cent of the total
number of applicants were accommodated during that academic session.
In the 2011/2012 session, five
universities were added, bringing the number to 117, with 500,000
carrying capacity amounting to 33.25 per cent and 1,503,933 students
applied that year.
However, in 2012/2013, 11 universities
were added bringing it to 128 with 520,000 (29.96 per cent) admission
spaces. In that year, a total of 1,735,729 applied for UTME.
According to National Universities
Commission report of 2011/2012, most of the universities in Nigeria
exceeded the alloted admission quota.
For instance, in 2011/2012, University
of Lagos (UNILAG)’s admission quota was 6,500 but admitted 7,527; Ahmadu
Bello University (ABU) was given 6,688 but admitted 7,397, just as
University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was given 5,970 but admitted 8,267.
University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in the same year was supposed to admit
5,514 but ended up admitting 7,098 while University of Maiduguri
(UNIMAID) which was given 5,600, admitted 5,699. Also Federal University
of Agriculture Makurdi which ought to admit just 2,133 ended up
admitting 3,350 students. The above analysis of these federal
universities admission quota explains why our universities are
over-crowded and lack facilities for students.
Besides, statistical data from JAMB
reveals that there are about 30 most preferred universities by students
seeking admission every year. In this report, we will look at the top 10
and the number of applicants.
University of Benin (UNIBEN) tops the table with 98,975 applicants, followed by UNILORIN having 94,869. Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) has 88,087, UNILAG 86,850, UNN 80,785, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) 69,856, ABU 59,427, Imo State University (IMSU) 53,368, University of Uyo (UNIUYO) 52,359 and University of Ibadan (UI) 50,274. This statistics implies that the above mentioned universities were consistently chosen as students’ first choice.
University of Benin (UNIBEN) tops the table with 98,975 applicants, followed by UNILORIN having 94,869. Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) has 88,087, UNILAG 86,850, UNN 80,785, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) 69,856, ABU 59,427, Imo State University (IMSU) 53,368, University of Uyo (UNIUYO) 52,359 and University of Ibadan (UI) 50,274. This statistics implies that the above mentioned universities were consistently chosen as students’ first choice.
According to the Association of American
Colleges and Universities, America has 2,680 accredited universities,
just as Scotland has 1,419, Wales 1,011. India, with a population of
over a billion has over 177 world class standard universities. China has
1,983 institutions of higher learning as at June 2009, as disclosed by
the Ministry of Education.
Thus, China with 1.4 billion people has
1,983 universities, India with 1.2 billion people has 177 universities,
United States with 318 million people has 2,680 universities compared to
Nigeria with about 178 million people and just 128 universities. From
the aforementioned statistics, Nigeria still needs more universities and
the improvement of the present ones to international standard.
Speaking with Vanguard Learning, Prof.
Florence Banku Obi, Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Calaber
said that capacity will determine the number of students to be admitted
saying: “If we don’t have the capacity, there is no way we can admit
more students.”
She noted that licensing more private
universities will not solve the problem. According to her, “If you are
licensing more universities, where are the lecturers? The same lecturers
in federal universities are the ones taking those in private and state
universities. The existing universities should be expanded with
corresponding infrastructure and facilities to suit the number of
students given by the NUC.”
She urged the Federal Government to expand the existing universities and get more lecturers before admitting more students.
Reacting in the same vein, the Deputy
Director, Academic Centre of Distance Learning, University of Ibadan,
Professor Oyesoji Aremu said that it is needless to tell universities to
increase their quotas because there is no corresponding increase in
terms of infrastructure. He said, “Telling universities to increase
their quota means existing infrastructure would be over stressed.
Universities admit the number they can genuinely and comfortably
accommodate in the first year.”
Explaining further some of the factors
to consider before admitting more students Aremu said that
infrastructure in departments and faculties are necessary adding that
the unavailability of desks in the lecture rooms should be considered.
According to him, in an over- crowded classroom, teaching and learning
cannot take place adding that even the lecturer will not be able to do
meaningful teaching when the learners are too many.
He said “there is a benchmark for the
number of students each lecturer is supposed to take. When a lecturer
takes in excess of that number, he has to be paid for the excess. That
would eat into the finances of the university.
“If JAMB sees that universities can take
only 600,000 students per year but still rolls out forms, what happens
to the others? Mind you, it didn’t start this year so the number will
increase every year,. The question is, where will they go? All these
learners are qualified to enter the university.
“Solution: For as many as are qualified
to enter the universities, something can be done about it. There is Open
and Standard Education or Distance Learning Education. For Open and
Standard education, we can have students in excess of millions because
it is basically a virtual university. My advice is that the Federal
Government should empower universities to develop their virtual
universities. For example, in University of Ibadan, we have a centre
called Distance Learning Centre of the Univerity of Ibadan. Lagos also
has a Distance Learning Institute, there is also the National Open
University. In fact, there are seven certified distance learning centres
in Nigeria. Universities that have dual mode; regular students and open
distance learning programmes can have students in excess. For example;
University of India in New Delhi has students in excess of 10 million.
They therefore built a virtual university to take these students who are
unable to get admission into regular universities.
More so, it is the same programme, exam and system.
The Ministry of Education should
encourage virtual universities. There is no need for new universities,
just empower universities to have virtual and distance learning centres.