Against the background of the prevailing competition among the candidates seeking admission to the University of Ibadan in the on-going 2019/2020 admission exercise, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abel Idowu Olayinka has provided insights into the fate of those who couldn’t gain admission through merit, saying their chances are dicey.
Prof Olayinka who, in an interview, disclosed that gaining admission to UI has become so competitive to the extent that once a candidate couldn’t secure admission through merit, the chances of getting admission through a change of course becomes so dicey because nobody can authoritatively predict what may happen.
According to the UI’s boss, “the point is that some courses have too many candidates seeking admission. When the numerous unsuccessful applicants into those programmes later decide to apply for a change of course, they would be contesting for the very few available slots in those courses. It is not even impossible for those courses to have been filled by those candidates that picked them as First Choice.”
Candidates who missed admission through merit have been mounting pressure on almost everyone they know in UI, seeking assistance whenever it comes to the time of change of course. Some Professors were seen openly complaining of pressure from relatives, friends, family members, with a few of them saying, “these people should know that UI’s admission is merit-driven. I am handicapped. I can’t help many of these requests.”
However, a parent , Engineer Olumide Ahmadu, has paid glowing tributes to the culture and tradition of transparency and merit in the undergraduate admission process at the University of Ibadan.
Engr. Ahmadu whose daughter missed last year’s admission to Medicine and Surgery by two points disclosed that her daughter insisted on Medicine this year, therefore prepared very hard and eventually scored 80%.
According to Engr. Ahmadu in a letter to the Head of Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, Professor Femi Awodoyin, shared by the VC, “to be honest with you, I prefer UI system of conducting admission. It gives room for fairness and UI runs most transparent admission in Nigeria. It is not for the best but for the BEST of BESTs.”
While thanking Prof. Awodoyin for the encouragement to give UI another trial, the elated father stated that UI’s admission was very transparent and without sentiment as the survival is for the fittest.
