University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), popularly known as Better By Far University, has remained Nigeria’s most applied for higher institution by the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates from 2020 to 2023.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) made this known during a policy meeting chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejoh.
According to JAMB, the top 10 universities chosen by candidates during the 2023 UTME are the University of Ilorin in the first position, followed by the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and in the third position is Lagos State University (LASU) with 55,964 applications.
JAMB noted at the meeting that UNILORIN emerged as the highest first choice applied for institution in the last four years (2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023).
The Better by Far university, according to JAMB, also had 103, 582 applications in 2020, and was closely followed by Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) with 82, 984 applications.
The university also had the lion’s share of the total UTME applications with 78,466 in 2021, and 73,749 in 2023 to lead the pack.
University of Lagos remains the closest contender with 59,190 in 2021 to come second.
UNILAG was also the second highest applied for institution in 2022 and 2023 with 61, 606 applications. It however came third in 2020 behind UNILORIN and ABU.
The Federal University, Oye Ekiti with 53,235 candidates is placed fourth, while the University of Benin (UNIBEN) with 48, 026 applicants, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka with 43,660 candidates are in the fifth and sixth position respectively.
Others are the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) with 41,959 candidates in the seventh ranking, Nnamdi Azikwe University with 41,759 placed eighth, while Nigerian Defence Academy with 41, 323, and the University of Ibadan in the ninth and tenth positions respectively.
It was gathered that some Nigerians believe that UTME candidates prefer UNILORIN because, for many years, the institution has not had any form of strike, unlike many other public tertiary institutions in the country.
