Getting into Nursing at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) is becoming more competitive, with over 5,000 candidates battling for just 50 admission slots in the 2026/2027 academic session.
The competition is also intense for Mass Communication, where about 4,000 candidates have applied for only 120 available spaces.
Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ayodeji Agboola, disclosed the figures on Wednesday during a presentation on OOU’s progress between 2022 and 2026 at the opening of a retreat for the outgoing Governing Council.
According to him, the rising number of applicants reflects growing public confidence in the university following reforms introduced over the past four years.
To accommodate more admission seekers, OOU will introduce Nursing Science, Mass Communication, Computer Science and Business Administration into its Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programme from the 2026/2027 academic session.
Agboola explained that the decision was driven by the overwhelming demand for the courses.
“As of yesterday, about 4,000 candidates had applied for Mass Communication, yet we have capacity for only 120 students. For Nursing Science, we have over 5,000 applicants competing for just 50 slots. Medicine is even more competitive,” he said.
He noted that the university’s ODL programme has grown steadily, from 100 students in the 2022/2023 academic session to 307 in 2025/2026.
Having graduated its first set of students, OOU has now met the minimum requirement set by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to expand the programme.
According to the vice-chancellor, students admitted through ODL will earn the same degree as those in the conventional programme, while giving more candidates the opportunity to study their preferred courses.
Beyond admissions, Agboola said student enrolment at the university has increased from 27,785 in 2022 to 34,657 in 2026.
He also revealed that OOU’s Webometrics global ranking improved from about 4,000 in 2022 to about 2,700 in 2026. The university is currently ranked 15th among more than 300 universities in Nigeria and 51st in Africa.
The vice-chancellor added that the university has cleared about ₦2.1 billion in pension and gratuity arrears, increased its annual revenue from ₦7 billion to over ₦11 billion and introduced ICT-driven reforms that have made administration largely paperless.
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