20 tertiary institutions struggle to enrol 1,000 students each – Report

No fewer than 20 Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education admitted less than 1,000 students during the 2024/2025 admissions.

This is as millions continue to sit for the yearly Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination yearly.

The data on the institutions’ admission performance were obtained from a report provided by the Federal Ministry of Education.

Analysis of the institutions with less than 1,000 candidates for 2024 academic session revealed that Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education had a total of 942 students; Federal University of Agriculture, Mubi with 184; Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo (568); Federal University of Technology, Ikot Abasi (942); Federal Poly of Oil and Gas Bonny (704); Federal Poly, Wannune (956); Federal Poly, Ukana (455); Federal Poly, Ohodo (65); Federal Poly, N’yak Shendam (89); and Federal Poly, Mongunu (350).

Others are: Federal Poly, Kabo (713); Federal Poly, Isuochi (118); Federal College of Education, Ilawe (397); Federal College of Education Technical, Ekiadolor (290); Federal College of Education Technical, ISU, (38); Federal College of Education Technical, Umunze (416); Federal College of Education,  Gidan-Madi (481); Federal College of Education, Iwo, (592); Federal College of Education, Odugbo, (317); and Federal College of Education, Asaba (276).

In March 2025, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, while lamenting the push for creation of new higher institutions by lawmakers at the National Assembly, noted that there were some institutions in the country with less than 1,000 students.

“We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there is this intense demand for more universities to be opened. We have to stop that,” he said.

Nigeria currently has 278 universities, 64 of which are federal, 67 state, and 147 private.

For now, the government has put a pause on the establishment of new ones in the process of registering new private universities.

Similarly, the Federal Government, in July this year, announced that tertiary institutions with fewer than 1,000 students enrolled would no longer receive funding from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

Specifically, it said the policy, designed to optimise public resource utilisation by restructuring the funding framework, would take effect from 2026.

Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, stated this at the 2025 Policy Meeting in Abuja.

Ahmad questioned the fairness of distributing the same amount of resources to schools with low enrollment as those with much larger student populations.

The minister, therefore, urged TETFund beneficiary institutions to exceed the government’s student enrollment benchmark to continue accessing funding from the agency.

Meanwhile, data from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board revealed that no fewer than six million candidates who sat the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in the last five academic sessions failed to secure admission into Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions.

Between 2020 and 2024, over 8.9 million candidates took the annual entrance exam conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

However, only about 2.7 million were admitted, leaving a staggering six million stranded, many of whom were forced to re-register and retake the examination in subsequent years.

Among the affected six million candidates are over 5,000 candidates who scored 300 and above out of the possible 400 score in the UTME.

The UTME, organised by JAMB, is the only acceptable examination taken by individuals seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Though some tertiary institutions may still schedule post-UTME for candidates seeking admission into their institutions, no individual can be admitted without a result verified by JAMB.

JAMB listed various factors as responsible for the low admission rate for candidates, as our correspondent observed that even candidates with scores as high as 300 failed to secure admission.

Commenting on the reasons why candidates, including high scorers, failed to get admitted, JAMB, in the documents obtained, listed “Wrong O’Level subject combination; low post-UTME screening score; non-acceptance of admission offer; duplication of application; absence from post-UTME screening and mismatch of catchment.”

Meanwhile, an education analyst, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin noted that students preferred well established universities to the upcoming ones.

“I think one of the issues is that most candidates and parents prefer the old institutions to the new ones that are just coming up. It’s like a candidate having a choice between the University of Ibadan and one new school just coming up, they don’t even care if UI will deny them admission, they’ll rather go for UI cause of the name.”