Every year, the release of JAMB’s policy meeting statistics gives Nigerians a clearer picture of just how intense the admission struggle has become.
Beyond the headlines and cut-off marks, these numbers reveal the courses students are rushing for. It also shows the schools attracting the most attention, and where admission spaces are either overcrowded or sitting empty.
More candidates registered this year than in 2025, showing that the demand for higher education in Nigeria keeps rising despite the increasing competition. Here’s a clear breakdown of the 2026 statistics, revealing the most desired universities and courses. 
- Total UTME Registrations (2026): 2,243,245
- Direct Entry: 52,632
- Grand Total: 2,295,877
Compared to last year’s data, the numbers this year were higher. In 2025, there were 2,031,754 UTME candidates. More and more young Nigerians are chasing higher education, which is great, but it also means the competition is getting hotter.
A large number (91.09%) of candidates chose to go straight for the universities as their first choice, different from 89.83% in 2025. Fewer people are choosing Colleges of Education. Everyone wants that university degree.
SEE ALSO: 150/400 is the New Standard: Is JAMB Right to Lower Cut-off Marks?
Faculty Applications vs Available Slots
This is where the data gets really interesting and a bit eye-opening. There is a great level of imbalance between the applications in different faculties and the space available for admission. Here is a breakdown:
- Medical/Pharmaceutical/Health Sciences — This one is in a league of its own. The blue bar (applications) is towering. Almost every parent and student seems to want Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, etc.
- Faculties of Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering/Technology/Environmental Sciences also have higher applications compared to the available space in the different tertiary institutions combined.
These courses are super popular, but the available admission quotas are much smaller. That’s why cut-off marks are usually high, and many brilliant students get disappointed.
However, the Education and Agriculture Faculties have more available slots than the number of students applying for them.
This means many seats in Colleges of Education and Education departments in universities often go unfilled every year.
Other faculties like Administration, Agriculture, Arts/Humanities, and Law fall somewhere in the middle — not as high as Medical faculties, but still competitive.
Top 10 Universities by Number of First Choice Applications
The Policy Meeting also released the top 10 universities chosen by the students as their first choice.
- LASU and UNILAG took the top two spots with 84,826 and 78,240 applications, respectively.
- OAU(60,370), UI(58,895), UNIBEN(55,425), UNIZIK(54,085), and UNN(51,660) pulled serious numbers as 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th respectively.
- UNILORIN has dropped. It topped the list every year between 2021 and 2024, but has now moved from 3rd in 2025 to 7th with 52,514 applications this year.
- FUOYE and UNIPORT made it into the Top 10 this year as the 9th and 10th, respectively.
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