Abstract/Summary

For decades the demand for higher education in Nigeria has been significantly more than the available places. The current rejection rate for applicants who compete to get into higher education through the country's Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is above 80%. This means that fewer than 2 out of every 10 applicants for higher education in the country are successful. The annual demand for higher education places in the country's formal higher education system is approaching two million. The (annual) secondary school graduation rate in the country is also about two million. The effort of the Nigerian government to improve higher education access in the country in recent years through the establishment of more universities and licencing of private universities has not improved the proportion of higher education aspirants who are admitted annually for higher education. The high population growth rate of the country, which is currently the world's 6th most populated country, appears to account for this. Parents who have the financial means send their children abroad for higher education but they constitute a small minority as Nigeria is a low-income country. Professional bodies in Nigeria offer professional examinations, which could be an alternative route to higher education, but have experienced minimal demand for such examinations. This study, which employed mixed methods of investigation including interview, focus group discussion, document analysis and questionnaire examined some of the factors that may be hindering the take up of professional examinations as an access route to higher education. Higher education aspirants who were 213 number and drawn from four secondary schools in Lagos State along with their school Counsellors and 9 Registrars of professional bodies in Nigeria participated in the study. Some of the data for the study were collected through document analysis. The study revealed that direct university admission that higher education aspirants in Nigeria generally prefer to other routes such as Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Professional bodies is the route that significant persons in their lives including school counsellors, and employers directly and indirectly promote to them. Most of the school counsellors and higher education aspirants who participated in the study did not demonstrate a good understanding of how professional examinations can give access to higher education. The study also revealed that ease of passing the relevant examination, the preferences of parents, the desire to study away from home and information collected from the internet were major influences on the choice of route to higher education chosen by the higher education aspirants who participated in the study. The study concludes that professional examinations, which have good potential of helping to reduce the difficulties young people experience in their effort to access higher education, have been poorly promoted to higher education aspirants in the country. The study recommends the adoption of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) that employs both traditional and new media for helping higher education aspirants in the country to appreciate how writing of professional examinations can be a means of resolving the problem of access to higher education. Such an effort, if done with commitment, may help Nigeria reduce to a significant level, the frustration young people who aspire to benefit from higher education seem to be currently experiencing. In a broader sense, such an effort may contribute to the accelerated development of Nigeria, a country that is endowed with diverse natural resources but largely dependent on crude oil for government revenue and currently grappling with socio-economic and political challenges such as unreliable electricity supply and high youth unemployment.