Admission criteria and graduate quality in Nigeria
Olugbenga Timothy Ajadi
Abstract
The reason for Nigeria's graduate unemployment rate is that the quality of education offered to graduates in Nigerian universities is questionable and insufficient to fulfill the expectations of contemporary employment. This study investigated the composite contribution of the four admission criteria, as well as the relative contribution of catchment area, merit, quota, and educationally less developed state criteria to the quality of Nigerian graduates. The study adopted a correlational approach with a population of all undergraduates across the public universities in Nigeria. An instrument titled ‘Admission Criteria and Graduate Quality Questionnaire’ was used to elicit response from the respondents using a stratified purposeful and simple random technique to select two universities and 800 participants each from the 400 level students at Zaria and Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The universities are among the first-generation universities located in the northern and southern parts of the country. The study found a significant composite contribution of the four government admission criteria to graduate quality. In addition, merit, quota and, catchment criteria have relatively significant contributions with merit having the biggest contribution whereas the lowest and least relative significant contribution was made by Education Less Disadvantage States. The study excluded other public universities outside the first-generation ones, as well as private universities within a defined time frame and geographic context. Future research could incorporate empirical investigations on the variables of the study in universities outside the first-generation and private institutions.
Keywords
government admission criteria, graduate quality, public universities, university education
Author information & Contribution
Olugbenga Timothy Ajadi. PhD. Senior Research Fellow, Department of Education Foundations, Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, South Africa. Email: ajagbesope@yahoo.co.uk
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Funding
This work was not supported by any funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines set by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria Institutional Review Board. The conduct of this study has been approved and given relative clearances by National Universities Commission, Abuja
AI Declaration
AI tools were not used in writing this paper.
Notes
Acknowledgement
The researcher would like to express gratitude to all of the participants from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife for kindly sharing their time, knowledge, and experiences during this study on government admission requirements and graduate quality in Nigeria. Their candor and considerate answers enhanced the research's depth and served as the basis for the conclusions. We truly appreciate the collaboration of the academic staff and students from the two universities, since their varied viewpoints enhanced the study's validity and significance.
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Cite this article:
Ajadi, O.T. (2025). Admission criteria and graduate quality in Nigeria. International Journal of Educational Management and Development Studies, 6(4), 45-67. https://doi.org/10.53378/ijemds.353280
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