The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has disclosed that 405, 256 spaces for admission of students into programs at all levels of tertiary education are not filled by candidates nationwide.
This was revealed in the board’s latest statistics made available on its website tagged ‘Titbits On 2020 Admission and 2021 UTME’ by the JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede.
The document disclosed that, “Of the total 925, 762 spaces that exist in Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and Innovation Enterprise Institutions across the country, only 551, 553 quotas was utilised leaving 405, 256 unutilised.
“601, 775 spaces exist in Universities, 235,240 in Colleges of Education, 114,929 in Polytechnics and 4,870 in Innovation Enterprise Institutions.
“The report on the conduct of the 2020 admissions into 962 institutions show that 179,330, 187,320, 35,352 and 3,573 spaces exist in Universities, Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Innovation Enterprise Institutions, respectively.
The board lamented that, “Despite the vacancies for admission, many candidates are still not admitted,” saying that “wrong O’ Level subject combination and low post-UTME scores could be responsible for this.”
The document said, “Other reasons are UTME subject combination deficiency, non-acceptance of admission offer by candidates, duplication of application, absence from post-UTME, mismatch of admission catchment area and no WASCCE result by trial candidates.
“On statistics of candidates with UTME high scores but not admitted, out of the 4,948 candidates that scored 300 and above, 1,455 candidates were not admitted.”
The board said, “In 2021, a total of 1,351,215 candidates registered for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)/Direct Entry (DE).
“There was a huge leap in 2022 as a total of 1,837,011 candidates registered for the UTME/DE.
“For colleges of education, 83,020 admission quotas were made available for federal-owned institutions, 131,880 for state-owned institutions and 20,340 for privately-owned colleges of education, making a total of 235,240 admissions quotas made available. The board, however, noted a vacancy of 187,320.
“A total of 35,352 quotas remained unfilled for polytechnics and monotechnics despite the 115,243 admission quotas provided.
“A breakdown shows federal polytechnics/monotechnics with 51,663 admission quotas; state owned institutions with 51,620 and private polytechnics and monotechnics with 11,960 admissions quotas.
“In the case of innovation enterprise institutions, the board stated that despite the 4,870 quotas provided, 3,573 vacancies remained unfilled.
“In summary, the board gave the statistics of admission quota as 925,762. While a total of 551,553 admissions were granted, 405,256 admission quotas remained unfilled.”
