Science & Technology : Nigerian Students’ Career Choices

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

A total of 1.5million applicants applied to tertiary institutions in UTME UTME 2012 ApplicationCount% STEM Courses705, % Others798, % Total UTME Applicants1,503,889 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.

The policy states:  60:40 – University & College of Education should give 60% admission preference for those seeking careers in the Science & Technology and 40% to others  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%) compare to others.

STEM Faculties: Faculty Total% Agriculture28, % Education16, % Engineering198, % Medicine232, % Sciences211, % Social Science17, % Grand Total705,802 FacultyCourses Agriculture99 Education50 Engineering86 Medicine25 Science136 Social Science12 Grand Total408 STEM Courses:

Agriculture (99): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Agric Economics And Extension6, % Agric - Business4, % Food Science And Technology4, % Agriculture3, % Nutrition1, % Education (50): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Education And Biology4, % Library And Information Science2, % Education And Mathematics1, % Health Education1, % Agricultural Science And Education2, %

Engineering (86): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Electrical Engineering40, % Petroleum Engineering19, % Mechanical Engineering34, % Civil Engineering33, % Chemical Engineering15, % Medicine (25): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Medicine And Surgery116, % Nursing Science41, % Pharmacy32, % Medical Laboratory Science22, % Radiography3, %

Science s (136): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Computer Science70, % Microbiology48, % Biochemistry38, % Biology13, % Chemistry10, % Social Science (12): Course with Highest ApplicantsTotal % Geography9, % Library And Information Science3, % Statistics3, %

All STEM Courses Engineering – 5 Medicine – 4 Science – 6

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

Faculty Total% Agriculture28, % Education16, % Engineering198, % Medicine232, % Sciences211, % Social Science17, % Grand Total705,802 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.

Further investigation of Students’ performance in National examinations such as the West Africa Examination Council (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

StatiSense ® - Wale Micaiah © Freely share, freely use and freely acknowledge the source – © Wale Micaiah Data source: -UTME 2012 Application -The African Innovation Outlook 2012 Analysis by: Wale Micaiah m: w. e: b: walemicaiah.blog.com