Universities Fill 74% of Admission Quota as Polytechnics, Colleges Utilise Just 34% – Report

A new policy report has revealed that Nigerian universities utilised 74 per cent of their approved admission quota in 2025, while polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions filled only 34.3 per cent of available admission spaces.

The report, “The Admissions Gap: Who Gets into Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions, and Why It Matters,” published by the iRead To Live Initiative, showed that 1,009,736 of the 1,716,154 approved admission spaces across tertiary institutions were filled, leaving 706,418 vacancies.

According to the report, universities admitted 785,180 students out of 1,060,919 available slots, while more than 275,000 university admission spaces remained unfilled. It argued that the figures challenge the widespread belief that Nigeria’s admission crisis is driven solely by inadequate institutional capacity.

Instead, the think tank attributed the gap to a structural mismatch between available admission spaces and candidates’ preferences, qualifications and access to institutions.

The report urged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to improve transparency by publishing privacy-protected admission data disaggregated by state, local government, gender, subject and institution, as well as the evidence used in determining national UTME cut-off marks.

It also recommended that JAMB publish an annual Admissions and Access Report after each admission cycle to provide a clearer picture of institutional capacity utilisation and admission trends.

Additionally, the report advised JAMB to conduct pilot testing and independent assessments before introducing its proposed Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) option for computer-based testing, warning that the policy should not disadvantage candidates without suitable personal devices.

The report comes as the new JAMB Registrar, Professor Segun Aina, begins implementing reforms aimed at improving admissions processing, transparency and service delivery ahead of the 2027 UTME cycle.