How to Gain Admission into University of Ilorin (UNILORIN): A - Z GUIDE - SCHOOLCONTENTS.info

How to Gain Admission into University of Ilorin (UNILORIN): A - Z GUIDE

GUIDE TO GAINING ADMISSION INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN (UNILORIN)

UNILORIN has been the hot cake for some years now, precisely 8 consecutive years. The university for some years has been the most subscribed institution in Nigeria. In 2017 for example, UNILORIN screened 48,666 admission seekers. And just recently, there was a report that the University had the highest number of foreign students.

You wouldn’t have been on this page if you, your friend, family, or child is not trying to join the No. 6 University in Nigeria and No. 3204 in the world (one of the last data).

I chose to write this post because year in, and year out, most admission seekers meet their waterloo at the gate of the Better by Far. To me, being the most subscribed university is not the primary reason many won’t make it to the university. After all, gaining admission to other universities, even private ones, is not free.

You can be offered admission by the University of Ilorin following the steps of the successful candidates before you.

The reason FOR BEING DEPRIVED ADMISSION is more because candidates blindly seek admission to this institution without the right information or I should put it simply, “because they don’t know how to gain admission to the university”.

The scripture says, "My people are perishing because they lack knowledge". Permit me to reshape that, “admission seekers are failing because they lack the right information".

This is the reason for writing this post. At the end of the post, you should get a clear picture of how those successful candidates on campus managed to be there and know the step-by-step journey that leads to a problem-free and connection-free admission to your beloved institution.

What Qualifies Me to Give You These Insights?

Having spent about two decades years as an education consultant, I had processed admissions into UNILORIN for hundreds of admission seekers. Some with success and some, of course with a capital NO.

With my stock of experience in this field, I can advise and guide candidates with NO clues on the successful admission process. My guide works for aspirants 90% of the time! I had been gratefully thanked and rewarded in the past by some admission seekers. Perhaps after following my guide, you should be back to reward me too. Lol!

Let’s get started!

Brief Picture of How to Gian Admission to the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN)

To gain admission into the University of Ilorin using UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) or DE (Direct Entry), you will need to follow these general steps:

  1. Obtain the UTME or DE form from JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) and register for the exam.
  2. Choose the University of Ilorin as your first choice institution during JAMB registration.
  3. Score the minimum cut-off mark for your desired course of study in the UTME exam (the minimum cut-off mark varies depending on the course).
  4. Attend the University of Ilorin Post UTME screening exercise and score above the minimum cut-off mark.
  5. Meet the University of Ilorin's admission requirements, which may include subject combinations and O'level requirements for your chosen course.
  6. Apply for admission on the University of Ilorin admission portal and provide all required information and documents, such as your JAMB result, O'level result, and other relevant documents.
  7. Attend the University of Ilorin admission screening exercise (if required) and meet all other admission requirements.

For Direct Entry, you will need to have a minimum of two A-level passes or its equivalent, and also follow steps 5 to 7 above.

It is important to note that admission into the University of Ilorin is highly competitive and meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission. Therefore, it is advisable to score as high as possible in your UTME or DE exam and ensure that you meet all the admission requirements for your desired course.

Let's get a comprehensive picture of how to Gain Admission Into the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

1. Ensure O'level; SSCE, WAEC, NECO, NABTEB, or NBAIS is Complete

First and foremost, hope you're set for admission with your O'level results? By this I mean, do you already have 5 required grades in your relevant SSCE, WAEC, NECO, GCE, NABTEB, and NBAIS?

That question may sound rhetorical but I must warn you that without 5 relevant O'level results, you're going nowhere for admission. Studying the JAMB brochure (as I will be covering below) will guide you as to what subjects you must have, at least, credits or passes in order to pursue a particular course.

You can also use awaiting results to seek admission, provided the results will be out or available before the school's post-UTME ends or before its admission lists will be coming out. This means if you're in SS 3 or you're yet to have complete O'level, you can fill in awaiting results for your O'level during UTME registration at CBT centre.

Note that, immediately after your O'level result is released and you make the required subjects, you must go back to any accredited CBT centre to scan and upload it to the JAMB portal. This may attract an additional charge though.

Literally, you'll need at least 5 credit passes in relevant subjects in one sitting or 5 credit passes in two sittings (or one sitting for Medicine, Nursing, and Physiotherapy) before you can apply to or be offered admission into the university.


2. Register UTME and Choose UNILORIN as the First Institution

To gain 100-level admission (I will cover the 200-level in the next section) into the University or any university at all, you must have obtained the current year JAMB UTME.

Don’t be mistaken, you can ONLY take this university as your FIRST choice. Anyway, you can’t even find it in the second-choice category. UNILORIN is not among the federal universities you can choose in the second choice position.

Recently, some candidates were believing they could use their previous year's JAMB score to secure admission this year. This could be those who had read some manufactured blog, WhatsApp, or Facebook posts that, Senate had passed that JAMB UTME results should be used for three admissions years. Nope! The Senate proposed that but it was later annulled by JAMB and the Ministry of Education.

Don't tell them I say this, "it's one thing to make law in this country, it's another to abide by or follow it". 

Did I just say that?

While choosing UNILORIN in JAMB UTME, carefully read and understand JAMB brochures to see the general requirements for your proposed course. This is one of the reasons most candidates with higher marks (200, 300 - even more) in UTME are deprived of admissions by schools for that matter.

I've also got your back in helpful eligibility status-checking guide on how to check whether you're qualified for any school and the course you want to study there. Check it out. And if you check the list of faculties/courses as listed in the first section above, you'll find the required UTME subject combination alongside the SSCE subjects.

Wrong Subjects Combination Case Study

I had seen an applicant to UNILORIN who was an Art student. The young man chose Criminology.

He scored 285 in JAMB and did well in post-UTME. However, he was not offered Criminology or any other course for compensation. Do you know why?

Even though Criminology sounds like an Art course, it’s social science/management in practice. Hence, it's categorized as social science (commercial) course at the University.  

In other words, the course is meant for commercial students who had at least 5 credit passes in their O’level results including Mathematics, English, Economics, Geography, Commerce, Accounts, etc. I detailed more on this course in, "Is Criminology an Art or a Social Science Course?".

Now, you can see what I was talking about. That's why it's important to study the JAMB brochure for the university's admission requirements before making your choice of course.

Studying JAMB Brochure

Gaining admission to any school, especially your beloved UNILORIN starts with perfect studying and understanding of what the JAMB brochure says.

Our friend above had listened to his brother who told him to go for the course. When I called his brother, he also said a friend recommended it.

This shouldn’t be the case.

Seek advice from a qualified and experienced education consultant and if not available, find a JAMB brochure. Even though JAMB is not doing well by only providing the online brochure. Luckily, I've compiled the JAMB brochure specifically for the University of Ilorin in my post, "JAMB Brochure For University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State".

You should equally avoid believing some blog posts, WhatsApp mass messages, and Facebook shares without confirmation from official sources.

I've personally prepared something called Mini JAMB Brochure to give you a quick guide on the right subject combination for most competitive courses. UNILORIN has a dedicated page on her website for the list of her courses, the UTME subject combination, and O'level requirement.

Note also that, in the brochure, there is a difference between general requirements for some courses and special requirements. General requirements are what JAMB asks all schools to accept for the courses, while special requirements explain if the schools have some exceptions; additions, or subtractions to the general requirements.

Studying JAMB brochures doesn’t only save you from the wrong course against your O’level results, it also saves you from the wrong UTME subject combination.

Please take note – if you score 400/400 in UTME, but with the wrong subject combination, you’re ONLY recognized and awarded by JAMB but forget that year's admission and start preparing for another UTME. 

That can only be resolved by changing the course to the course your subject combination goes with or other options explained in my post, "What Candidates Should Do With Wrong Subjects Combination".


3. Prepare for UNILORIN Post UTME

Ok. Your UTME result is out and it’s time to write Post UTME.

UNILORIN is one of those schools that conduct entrance exams to weed out some admission seekers. But first, what is your UTME score? Is it suitable for your proposed course? If you don’t have anything above 179, forget Better by Far.

Though 180 will still not be enough for some competitive courses. This means you must score 180 or above to proceed to the next stage. Yet, the university yearly draws some UTME cut-off marks for each course, which a candidate must meet before registering for post-UTME. 

This means, before you can proceed to post UTME as a Pharmacy candidate, you may need 250 and more in UTME, and education candidates may just need 180 and above.

Do you get the point?

JAMB UTME examination session
UTME candidates at an examination session


You can see Pre- Post UTME  cut-off marks for previous years here.  Please note that these cut-off marks are not permanent as they can change every admission year. They draw cut-off marks based on the number of students for each course, average performance in UTME, available spaces for intakes, etc.

UPDATE: The university didn't conduct computer-based post-UTME in the 2020/2021 admission year. Rather, they use screening which involves basing the lists on the performance of candidates in JAMB and O'level or A'level. However, for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, the CBT post-UTME continues.

Qualified For Post UTME or Not?

Are you qualified or not? If you’re, thumbs up! If you’re not DON’T panic. You can still consider a change of course. You can change your course to the course you’re qualified for during the post-UTME registration (on the school portal). They allow it.

It is equally possible to your change of course on the JAMB portal but I prefer doing that on the UNILORIN portal during post-UTME registration. You can then later do the change of course on the JAMB portal if need be and at a later date.

UNILORIN post UTME is a computer based test
UNILORIN post-UTME is a computer-based test

This is because the change of course on the UNILORIN portal will close along with post-UTME registration, but the JAMB change of course (for now) remains open for all time. Then, you can save your money for JAMB change of course if you don't eventually do well in the post-UTME test. If you do well, you can then do a JAMB change of course, to match things with the one you chose on the school portal.


4. Applying for UNILORIN Admission as a Direct Entry Candidate

This section is not for everybody.

Direct entry applicants are candidates who had completed their studies in BSC, HND, ND, NCE, IJMB, JUPEB, RN, Cambridge Advanced Level (A’levels), etc. Then, later want to further their studies at universities for their courses or related courses but this time to 200 or 300 level straight. If you don’t belong to this category of candidates, skip this section.

As a UNILORIN direct entry admission seeker, you must:

  1. have equally obtained the JAMB Direct Entry form (not the JAMB UTME form). 
  2. register at any available CBT centres/JAMB office across the nation. 

NOTE: JAMB direct entry form usually comes out the very time UTME candidates are registering too. It was in the past that the DE form came after UTME, though this happened again in 2022/2023. During the registration, your first choice institution should be UNILORIN, the school doesn’t consider second choice applicants.

Before registration, please visit, study, and understand the brochure.

DON’T IGNORE this, please.

I had covered what you need to look for in the JAMB brochure above. Please go back there and read it. The special consideration (waiver) remarks part of your brochure is more focused on DE applicants.

Recommended:
  1. Direct Entry Form: Registration Procedures, Price, Closing Date, etc.
  2. Direct Entry Candidates Applying With Awaiting Results (AR): What You Must Know

You may and may not bother to submit a copy of your registration print-out and credentials to the admission office of the university. UNILORIN doesn’t compulsory this submission.

But there may be the need to send the results (transcripts) of your in BSC, HND, ND, NCE, IJMB, JUPEB, Cambridge Advanced Level (A’levels) to the admission office if you pass their Post-DE and you're offered admission. This is IMPORTANT.

JUPEB Candidates Are More Favored For DE Admission 

UNILORIN has special consideration for her DE candidates who participated in the university's JUPEB programmes and passed. It’s more automatic to gain admission through UNILORIN JUPEB.

Post DE Entrance Exams

As a direct entry applicant, you must equally be ready to write post-DE test which will be scheduled along with post-UTME.

Grade Required for Direct Entry Admission

Please note also that the school prefers upper credit from ND holders or 10 points or above from NCE holders.

However, you can be offered admission if you have lower credit or 9 points provided you consider less competitive courses. For example, the university, for Accounting, accepts HND lower credit, ND lower credit with ICAN (ATS) or ICAN (ACA).


5. Predegree Candidates Gain Admission to 100 Level

How does UNILORIN treat her Pre-degree or remedial Students for Admission to 100 level?

Something is important here.

If you're a student of UNILORIN Remedial programmes, you are 99% of the time going to be offered admission to the 100-level.

Let me explain!

In my last years of producing students to UNILORIN Remedial programmes, I only recorded ONLY ONE student who was not eventually offered admission to 100-level.

You will soon know why!

You must have failed two of the three conditions below before the university can show you the way home.

  1. Failed in remedial final exams
  2. Failed in UTME
  3. Failed in Post-UTME

UNILORIN will consider its pre-degree students for admission to the 100-level if they pass the pre-degree exams, even if they fail UTME (but not a ridiculously lower mark - any mark above 179 will be fine). Such students will be given admission through remedial instead of JAMB. 

In this case, the management may set a lower requirement in UTME and post-UTME for their pre-degree candidates so that they can be favored at last.

If however, a candidate still doesn't meet the lower requirements set, he may end up a loser.

The university only asks you to attempt UTME for official records and in order to have a JAMB registration number.

If a remedial student passes UTME but fails remedial exams, he or she will be offered admission through JAMB instead. But if you fail both, you can't even do post-UTME and you're going to miss your beloved university.

Nature or Mode of UNILORIN Post-UTME/DE

UNILORIN Post-UTME/DE is computer-based. This shouldn’t be new to you by now unless you didn’t write UTME in the first place. Its questions cover English, Mathematics, and General papers for all candidates irrespective of their proposed courses.

During your post-UTME registration, you have the choice to write your exams at Ilorin (Lagos center not included for now).

The result grading is 100% and on average you should have 50% or above to have any hope.

However, 50% may not help you if you’re competing in courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, etc. You may need to shock them with a score between 80-100% if you’ll smile at the campus gate this year.

In case you don’t have a higher mark or you score less than 50%, that's the end of the road. Quickly change to another school before it’s too late. With this, you’ll look for another institution that had not done her post-UTME or those that had not done theirs at all. I mean schools that had not closed admission processes for the current admission year. Change to such schools to renew your hope.

Get Admission Helps or Connections for UNILORIN

I was kidding with a friend recently that if I must start a school in the future, one important course I would recommend was CONNECTION or INFLUENCE. It’s like nothing works on merit in this part of the world again. 

Is that what you're thinking too? You can be right and wrong!

Below is my explanation.

Now you have got good scores in UTME and Post-UTME and you still panic you may not be offered admission eventually. Why?

Must ReadHow JAMB and Each School Will Admit UTME/DE Applicants

People have been let down like this in the past not only by UNILORIN but by other schools. Some people attribute that to the lack of connection or influence. If you don’t know people; lecturers, professors, security men, etc. – it doesn’t matter what you get. This is the notion of the day but you may be wrong.

Schools still use merit. They use connection too but there’s no way the connection will supersede merit.

Get this!

For every federal University like UNILORIN, about 45% of applicants must be considered on merit, about 35% for catchment areas, and 20% for educationally less developed.

I detailed this in my post, "Admissions Based on Educationally Less Developed States, Catchment Areas, and Merit"

I know lecturers help with the admissions of some applicants. And I know equally that, a lecturer will not waste his slot on a candidate who already merits that admission. So, when you’re already on the merit list, no one can take you off it. All you should just work for is being on that merit list.

Recommended: UNILORIN Admissions: Here are the catchment Areas and How they Affect Admissions

WARNING! Don’t pay anybody for seeking admission into the University of Ilorin; admission is based on merit, catchment areas, and less educated states.

Conclusion

You must have heard lots of fabricated lies about UNILORIN's admission. Some attribute their failure to secure a position in the lecture room to being Christians, Yoruba other than the Kwara, Non-Hausa names, etc. This is not true, they just must say something as an excuse. The majority of students already on campus know this by now.

What you need in brief, is, to follow what the successful candidates had done and you will achieve the same thing they have.

Good luck! 💪💪

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Also in this Series

  1. NDA Admissions Complete Guide: For UTME Applicants (Undergraduates) 
  2. OAU Admissions Complete Guide: For UTME, DE, Predegree and JUPEB Applicants
  3. AAUA Admissions Complete Guide: For UTME, DE, JUPEB and Predegree Applicants
  4. FUNAAB Admission Complete Guide For UTME, DE, Predegree, IJMB, JUPEB and Cambridge A'level 
  5. UNILAG Admission Complete Guide For UTME, DE, Foundation and JUPEB Applicants 

28 comments:

  1. Can't upload all my best five relevant o level results why registering for this year post utme was only able to input 3 subjects why is this so and is there anything I can do about it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The system knows the best subjects for your proposed course as designed for the university admission. What's acceptable by one institution may not be reckoned with by another.

      Delete
  2. Pls once I upload my ijmb result to unilorin portal how can I be sure it has been uploaded because I wasn't there when mine was uploaded

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They don't upload IJMB result to UNILORIN portal. They only fill the grades and other details. Scanning and uploading is compulsory for the JAMB portal instead. You can log in to your UNILORIN admission portal and JAMB portals to check the two.

      Check the links below
      1. https://www.schoolcontents.info/2018/09/how-to-check-if-your-ssce-result-has.html
      2. https://www.schoolcontents.info/2018/08/how-to-upload-waec-neco-or-nabteb.html
      3. https://www.schoolcontents.info/2019/08/can-i-upload-olevel-results-to-jamb.html
      4. https://uilugportal.unilorin.edu.ng/putme_login.php

      Delete
  3. Will unilorin offer admission to those who are writing jamb this year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The university has not said anything contracting to YES.

      Delete
  4. To be given admission for computer science the score must be atleat?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The university can decide any score above 50% for any of its courses.

      Delete
  5. is unilorin giving admission for 2021/2022 JAMB I mean this june Jamb 2021

    ReplyDelete
  6. To given admission for pharmacy the score must be atleast what?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know of this. UNILORIN doesn't make her points public.

      Delete
  7. How is unilorin aggregate score calculated?

    ReplyDelete
  8. what course can i change to because i got 183 in my jamb and i want to study business admin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When the university screening form is out. Check the list of their cut-off marks to decide here to change to.

      Delete
  9. Please i really want to get admission into unilorin.My jamb score is 206.nd i also made it well in my neco nd gce

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sir, with a upper credit in OND and 14/30 in the just concluded Post utme exam. Also,the O'level results grade is B parallel, Can a offer of admission to study Food science be certain..i will be glad to read your reply sir.thank you

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sorry just curious to know. I wrote post utme and got 13/30 but my o'level results are good can I still gain admission

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's difficult to answer. The university has to draw the cut-off mark for individual courses before we can say. Kindly wait for the university to announce the point required for your course.

      Delete
    2. Is there a chance for me to get admission, I use awaiting result in post utme registration.

      Delete
  12. Please can I get admission into uniilorin,business administration with 190

    ReplyDelete
  13. I dey feel you my Oga, more upliftment 🙏🏽

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sir did Unilorin use aggregate every year like did they calculate jamb,wace and post utme every year

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sir, I did jamb and scored 267. PUTME I scored 67. While in waec only my maths is deficient with grade E8 and I registered for B.A in Arabic, from onset, at unilorin. Please will I be considered thence given admission at the university of Ilorin... I await your reply sir 🙏🙏

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sir, can I use my diploma in law results from Lasu to enter unilorin?

    ReplyDelete

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