Whereas 98,028 candidates from eight
northern states and Federal Capital Territory sat for this year’s
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, Imo State had 104,383
candidates, CHARLES ABAH reports
Details of the 2016 Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination emerged on Monday with Imo State indigenes
topping the list of applicants that sat for the examination.
The state topped the state of origin
statistics table with 104,383 (about 6.56 per cent) of the 1,592,305
million candidates that sat for the examination conducted by the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation Board this year.
This comes as only 14,242 candidates
from both Kebbi and Zamfara states applied for the examination. Whereas
only 5,295 candidates from Zamfara State sat for the examination, 8,947
others from Kebbi State sat for the qualifying examination to the
nation’s higher institutions.
The Computer-based examination for
entrance to the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education,
which held between February 27 and March 23, took place in 540 centres
in Nigeria and eight overseas countries.
The countries are Benin Republic, Cameroun, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Delta State came second on the table
with 78,854 candidates (4.95) in the examination in which only 25,445 of
the 1,592,305 million candidates applied to study Agriculture.
The third on the table is Anambra State, which produced 77,694 or 4.88 per cent of the candidates.
Imo State, a reliable source in JAMB confided in our correspondent, has remained on top of the table for many years.
In the examination, which only 24,160
Lagos State indigenes sat for, their Osun State counterpart had 72,752
candidates, placing it in the fourth position.
The statistics obtained exclusively by
our correspondent also revealed that Oyo State, with 72,298 candidates
(4.54 per cent), came fifth, while Enugu State placed sixth with 69,381
candidates or 4.36 per cent.
In the seventh position is Edo State
with 66,107 or 4.15 per cent of the candidates, while Ogun State placed
eighth with 62,973 candidates.
Ogun State, with over 15 universities
and polytechnics, has the highest number of tertiary institutions in the
country. It has 10 private universities comprising the Babcock
University, Ilishan-Remo; Covenant University, Ota; Bell University,
Ota, established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Crawford
University, Igbesa.
Others are Chrisland University,
Abeokuta; Mountain Top University, Ibafo; Christopher University on the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, McPherson University, Seriki-Sotayo; Hallmark
University, Ijebu-Itele, and the Crescent University, Abeokuta, founded
by the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Prince Bola
Ajibola.
Akwa Ibom State, which placed ninth, had
62,369 candidates, while Benue State, in the 10th position, led the
pack from the 19 states in the North with 60,160 candidates.
Kogi State placed 11th on the rankings
with 57,694 candidates, whereas Kwara State, which accommodates the
University of Ilorin, had 54,606 candidates.
UNILORIN, as in the last two years,
still occupies the first slot in terms of attracting the highest number
of applicants. One hundred and three thousand, two hundred and
thirty-eight candidates applied to study in the university this year.
The University of Benin, Edo State, with
81,363 candidates and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State,
with 75,383 candidates, came second and third respectively.
Fifty-six-year-old University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, attracted 65,954 candidates to place
fourth, while Bayero University, Kano (64,220), and the Nnamdi Azikwe
University, Awka (61,862) came fifth and sixth respectively.
The University of Lagos, with 60,659
candidates, is placed seventh ahead of the nation’s oldest ivory tower,
University of Ibadan, with 59,176 candidates. In last year’s rankings,
68-year-old UI was placed seventh while UNILAG was fifth.
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
Osun State, retained the ninth position it occupied in 2015. This year,
it attracted 45,924 candidates.
The University of Jos, which was not
among the top 10 sought, after universities in 2015, improved on its
rankings, placing 10th this year with 40,366 candidates.
For the private universities, the
Covenant University, Ota; Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti
State; Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo; and the Igbinedion University,
Benin, Edo State, occupied the first four positions in terms of
attracting candidates’ interest. They had 2, 586; 1,304, 1,248 and 418
candidates in that order.
Missing on top 10 private universities
among candidates are the Bell University, Ota and the American
University of Nigeria, Yola, Adamawa State, founded by former
Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
The Madonna University, Okija, Anambra
State (370); Bowen University, Iwo (329); Al-Qalam University, Katsina
(308) and the Baze University, FCT (277) came fifth, sixth, seventh and
eighth in that order.
The Bingham University, Karu, with 247
candidates, and the Benson Idahosa University, Benin, Edo State, with
204 candidates, occupied the ninth and 10th positions, out of the over
60 private universities in the country.
Still on the rankings, the lowest 10
states in terms of applicants are Niger, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Jigawa,
Yobe, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and FCT.
While 18,231 Niger State indigenes
applied for tertiary education this year, Borno and Taraba states had
15,697 and 15,672 candidates respectively. Adamawa, Jigawa, Yobe and
Sokoto had 15,615,12,664, 10,045, and 10,006 in that order. FCT had only
4,087 candidates.
Meanwhile, of the 1,592,305 million candidates that sat for the examination, only 68,481 candidates applied to study Education.
Social Sciences topped the faculty table with 362,567 candidates.
The breakdown further reveals that whereas 336,694 candidates sought to study Medicine, 95,182 others applied to study Law.
Engineering/Technical/Environmental
courses with 228,195 candidates attracted a higher number of applicants
than Administration and Arts/Humanities, which posted 88,029 candidates.
Similarly, 217,150 candidates considered Sciences this year.
In a related development, 565,479 or
10.46 per cent of the entire candidates, who sat for the examination,
scored 200 out of possible 400 marks.
Also, 821,095 or 15.20 per cent scored 190 and above, while 1,053,979 or 19.50 per cent scored 180 and above.
The cumulative performance statistics
also revealed that 1,370,837 or 25.37 per cent candidates obtained 170
and above, whereas 1,474,999 or 27.30 per cent got 160 and above.
At the rung of the ladder are 117, 290 or 2.17 per cent candidates that scored below 160 marks.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde,
had two weeks ago announced that 180 marks would be the minimum score
for any candidate seeking admission to the nation’s higher institutions
this year.
The carrying capacity of all tertiary
institutions in the country this year, a reliable source at the National
Universities Commission told our correspondent on Monday, was 695,449.
The source also revealed that of the
1,592,305 applicants, 1,557,017 of them, representing 97.78 per cent,
applied for university education, while 17,673 or 1.11 per cent sought
admission to the colleges of education.
Seventeen thousand five hundred and
eight-four, representing 1.10 candidates, applied for National Diploma
in the polytechnics. The remaining 31 applicants, representing 0.002 per
cent, applied for NID.
Copyright PUNCH.
