Applicants' Career Choices and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to Nigerian tertiary institution

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2. Science & Technology:
Nigerian Students’
Career Choices

3. One of the metrics that makes a country better
than another in Science and Technology is
“How many students a nation educates in
science and technology disciplines”
The other three are:
Published research papers – It is a good way to get
a bead on basic research
Number of Patents - Patent give a clue as to how
well a country is exploiting its ideas for commercial
gain
Gross domestic expenditure on research and
development
This study takes a look at career choices of
Nigerian students in the 2012 UTME application

4. A total of 1.5million applicants applied to
tertiary institutions in UTME 2012.
UTME 2012 Application Count %
STEM Courses 705,802 46.93%
Others 798,087 53.07%
Total UTME Applicants 1,503,889
STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Clearly, more applicants prefer non-science
courses in Humanity, Arts, Social Science, Law,
Education and Administration.
Nigeria has a policy that gives preference to
applicants in the Sciences & Technology over
other careers.

5. The policy states:
60:
60:40 – University & College of Education should give
60% admission preference for those seeking careers
in the Science & Technology and 40% to others
70:
70:30 – Polytechnic should give 70% admission
preference for those seeking careers in the Science
& Technology and 40% to others
There are Nine faculties that applicant can seek
admission into: Administration, Agriculture,
Arts, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine,
Sciences and Social Science
More applicants apply for courses in
Administration (19%) and Social Sciences (21%)
19% 21%
compare to others.

6. STEM Faculties:
Faculty Total %
Agriculture 28,726 4.07%
Education 16,315 2.31%
Engineering 198,252 28.09%
Medicine 232,945 33.00%
Sciences 211,956 30.03%
Social Science 17,608 2.49%
Grand Total 705,802
Faculty Courses
Agriculture 99
Education 50
Engineering 86
Courses:
STEM Courses: Medicine 25
Science 136
Social Science 12
Grand Total 408

7. 99)
Agriculture (99):
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Agric Economics And Extension 6,772 23.57%
Agric - Business 4,997 17.40%
Food Science And Technology 4,372 15.22%
Agriculture 3,978 13.85%
Nutrition 1,459 5.08%
Education (50):
50)
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Education And Biology 4,102 25.14%
Library And Information Science 2,152 13.19%
Education And Mathematics 1,314 8.05%
Health Education 1,118 6.85%
Agricultural Science And Education 2,032 12.45%

8. 86)
Engineering (86):
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Electrical Engineering 40,891 20.63%
Petroleum Engineering 19,745 9.96%
Mechanical Engineering 34,276 17.29%
Civil Engineering 33,477 16.89%
Chemical Engineering 15,501 7.82%
25)
Medicine (25):
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Medicine And Surgery 116,474 50.00%
Nursing Science 41,999 18.03%
Pharmacy 32,814 14.09%
Medical Laboratory Science 22,987 9.87%
Radiography 3,002 1.29%

9. 136)
Science s (136):
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Computer Science 70,150 33.10%
Microbiology 48,120 22.70%
Biochemistry 38,257 18.05%
Biology 13,085 6.17%
Chemistry 10,085 4.76%
Social Science (12):
12)
Course with Highest Applicants Total %
Geography 9,516 54.04%
Library And Information Science 3,185 18.09%
Statistics 3,659 20.78%

10. 140,000
All STEM Courses
Engineering – 5
120,000 Medicine – 4
Science – 6
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0

11. According to the African Innovation Outlook 2012;
Nigerian science is dominated by the three fields of
Medicine,
Medicine Agricultural and Biological Sciences and
Sciences,
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Biology

12. This means, Nigerians in STEM have produced
more research outputs in the Life Sciences
where Biology is core subject compared to the
Physical Sciences where Physics and
Mathematics are core subjects.
Faculty Total %
Agriculture 28,726 4.07%
Education 16,315 2.31%
Engineering 198,252 28.09%
Medicine 232,945 33.00%
Sciences 211,956 30.03%
Social Science 17,608 2.49%
Grand Total 705,802

13. Further investigation of Students’ performance in
National examinations such as the West Africa
Examination Council (WAEC),
(WAEC) the National
Examination Council (NECO) and the Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination (UTME) will assist to
identify the root cause of this research outputs in
physical sciences

14. Data source:
- UTME 2012 Application
- The African Innovation Outlook 2012
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source – © Wale Micaiah
Analysis by: Wale Micaiah
m: 08078001800
w. www.statisense.info
e: walegate@yahoo.com
b: walemicaiah.blog.com
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