2015 UTME: 90,000 applicants won't get Unilorin admission - VC.

About 107,000 candidates seeking admission into University of Ilorin have gotten the shock of their lives from the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali who has revealed that only 12,000 would be admitted into 2015/2016 session at the institution.

No fewer than 90,000 applicants that wrote the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination Computer-based Test organised by the JAMB would be disappointed, Ambali regretted.

“For example, at the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), no fewer than 105,000 candidates applied to study at the University of Ilorin... this year, no fewer than 107,000 candidates also applied to study in the University. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate maybe between 11,000 and 12,000 candidates. So, imagine disappointing up to 90,000 admission seekers. That means those 90,000 should have alternatives apart from Unilorin,” Unilorin Bulletin quoted the VC saying in a copy obtained by Pilot Education.

He added: "If you consider how many spaces we have for them, the universities that we have are too small to meet the demands for tertiary education in the country. Even with improvement in funding and already existing universities, we still need more universities. It is also important to increase the capacity of the present ones and increase funding to match their needs."

  According to the Bulletin, the VC also set agenda for the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to pay greater attention to the nation's education sector with a view to raising the quality of education at all levels.

Ambali urged the incoming administration to accord priority to the welfare of teachers at all levels of education as well as improve on the funding of educational institutions in order to guarantee sound and qualitative education in that country.

"I expect the incoming President to empower us to be able to carry out the three responsibilities given universities by the Federal Government; that is teaching, research and community service. That means that we need more funding to be able to achieve all these roles. To be able to carry out both effective teaching and learning, there is also the need to improve on the environment within and outside the classroom."

The Vice-Chancellor identified infrastructural development and stable power supply as critical factors that can drive effective teaching and learning, especially at this time when teaching is ICT -Information and Communication Technology - driven.

He added that electricity supply is central to the success of any research endeavour, pointing out that research is carried out in the laboratories and it will be undermined if electricity supply is unstable.

"I want the Federal Government to address the issue of power supply not only to the universities but also to all Nigerian homes because when researchers leave the laboratories, they have to go home. If they get home and cannot sleep comfortably, that means the following day, they will not be mentally and psychologically ready to carry out their responsibilities effectively," Prof. Ambali said.