The University of Ilorin Kwara State in Central Nigeria, has emerged the 2017 university of first choice among student-applicants as the foremost citadel of learning in the Country, followed by seventeen (17) others from 148 officially recognised Universities in Nigeria drawn from the Federal, State and Private institutions, the Economic Confidential can authoritatively report.

In a new report obtained and carefully computed and analysed by the Economic Intelligence magazine from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on the preferred first university of choice in 2017, the University of Ilorin has the highest applications with 104,038 student-applicants. The figure represents almost about 10 percent of the 1,212,818 total applicants seeking admissions into the 40 Federal Universities in Nigeria. The Unilorin also led last year with 103,238 student-applicants.

Using the JAMB’s report of most preferred universities in the country, the Economic Confidential gathered that applicants seeking for admission into universities considered academic stability, popularity, affordability, available facilities and quality of lecturers as part of their check-list before making choices in their applications. Of the Forty (40) federal Universities in the country, UNILORIN is number one followed by Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria in Kaduna North-West Nigeria with student-applicants of 89,688.

University of Benin, Edo State in South-South Nigeria is third in the ranking with 85,486 applicants; University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu in South-East is the fourth with 79,073 applicants, University of Lagos (UNILAG) in South-west Nigeria is the fifth with 78,899 while Bayero University Kano (BUK) in the North-West Nigeria comes sixth with 68,241 students applicants.

Meanwhile, among the federal universities in the country, namely: Federal University Dutsima Katsina in North-West, Federal University Gashua Yobe in North-East and National Open University (NOUN) are ranked as 38th, 39th and 40th positions and having student-applicants of 3807; 1897 and 110 respectively.

State Universities: Of the current 41 official State Universities, Lagos State University (LASU), South-West Nigeria is number one with 36,119 applicants; followed by Kaduna State University North-West with 28,914 applicants; Delta State University Abraka, South-South is third with 28,672 student applicants, Nasarawa State University, North-Central is fourth with 29,142 applicants; Benue State University Makurdi in North-Central and Adekunle Ajasin University Ondo in South-West came fifth and sixth with 27, 611 and 27,579 student-applicants respectively.

In the lower ladders in the ranking of State Universities, the institutions with lower patronage of admission seekers are Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa in South-West, Edo University, Iyamho in South-South and Eastern Palm University, Ogboko in Imo State in the South-East are ranked 39th, 40th and 41st and have student-applicants of 399; 165 and 12 respectively.

Private Universities: As for private Universities in the country numbering 67, the four leading institutions are all from the South-Western States of Nigeria. The number one position is grabbed by Covenant University, Canaan Land, Ota with 2,438 applicants, followed by Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State 1,599, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State 1,455 and Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State with 485 students applicants. The fifth and sixth positions go to Abuja based Nigerian Turkish Nile University with 478 and Baze University with 476 student applicants.

The Economic Confidential discovered that out of the 67 private Universities in Nigeria, these ones occupy the lower rung in the ladder with 5 applicants each: Chrisland University, Owode Ogun State South-West; Koladaisi University Ibadan, Oyo South-West and Legacy University Okija, Anambra South-East. The least patronage by University seekers in the last position of 67th is Kwararafa University, Wukari, Taraba State with just 4 applicants.