Only 18,667 of the over 1.6 million candidates who applied for this year's Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination are seeking admission to the nation's private universities, The PUNCH findings have shown.

This shows that over 98 per cent of candidates prefer the public universities to the private ones.

There are 50 private universities and 79 federal and state universities in the country.

Of the 18,667 candidates, the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, has the highest number of applicants with 3, 315 candidates seeking admission to the institution belonging to the Living Faith Church.

The Obong University, Obong, Ntak, Akwa Ibom State and the Southwestern University, Okun-Owa, Ogun State, have the least number of applicants with only four candidates seeking placement in each of the institutions.

A Joint Admissions Matriculation Board document entitled "the Statistics of Choice of Institutions," obtained by our correspondents on Monday, revealed this. It shows that no fewer than 1.6 million candidates registered for this year's UTME.

An analysis of the document also shows that a federal university, the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, has 109,484 candidates, making it the institution with the highest applicants in this year's UTME.

Already, of the 1,015,504 candidates that sat for the board's Dual-Based Test and Paper Pencil Test on April 12, only 47 of them scored above 250 from the 400 marks obatainable. The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, announced the release of the results five days after the examinations.

Another batch of 616,574 candidates will sit for the Computer-Based Test from May 7, 2014.

A further breakdown of the analysis reveals that the Bell University, Ota, Ogun State, owned by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has 232 applicants; while the American University of Nigeria, Yola, owned by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has 280 applicants.

One thousand, five hundred and eighty-eight candidates applied to study at the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti; 349 at the Redemeers University, Mowe, Ogun State; 31 at the Kwarafa University, Wukari; and 22 at the Mcpherson University, Seriki Sotayo, Ogun State.

The Paul University, Awka, Anambra State, has only 25 applicants; while the Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State has 62 candidates.

The three oldest private universities established in 1999 -the Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo; Madonna University, Okija, and the Igbinedion University Okada - have 2,139, 1,021 and 658 applicants in that order.

Findings show that the tuition in a private tertiary institution in the country ranges between N500,000 and N2m per academic session, a development, many stakeholders say, is responsible for the low patronage by many candidates.

Tuition in public universities is relatively cheaper than what obtains in the private universities. However, the Lagos State University, Ojo, presents a peculiar case, as fees range from N197, 000 to N350, 000 per academic session.

Some have also expressed the opinion that the bulk of the nation's choice lecturers are still in public universities. But the Vice-Chancellor of the Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, Prof. Ayo Olukoju, says there is no cause for alarm over the disparity. According to Olukoju, whose institution received only 88 applicants, tuition fees, preference for old generation institutions and availability of courses are some of the factors responsible for the development.

For instance, he notes, the citizens' perception of such old institutions as the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and the University of Nigeria makes them the preferred choices of many candidates.

Besides, the VC adds, many of the private institutions run limited number of courses that "they can conveniently manage to provide quality education to the students."

He adds, "Many of these federal and state universities have occupied the public space for so long; hence, their higher rating and acceptance by the citizens. Again, in many of the private universities, they do not offer such courses as Medicine, Law and other programmes that are capital-intensive. These and many more give the public universities a head start over their private university counterparts."

A Professor of International Relations, Kayode Soremekun, agrees with Olukoju.

Soremekun says, "Many people cannot still afford the cost of attending private universities and this simply explains the paradox. The cost is deterring many people from seeking admission to the private universities. If these private institutions should open their doors in terms of reducing the tuition, the situation will definitely change."

Soremekun, who teaches at the Covenant University, also notes that the nation's private universities are battling with other international competitors in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Ghana, a factor that, he adds, is contributing to depleting the number of their potential candidates.

Meanwhile, of the 109,484 candidates that sought admission to UNILORIN, 107,610 of them chose the university as their first choice, while 1, 682 chose it as their second choice.

The university is the third choice of 176 candidates and the fourth choice of 16 applicants. It has not witnessed any industrial action for some years now, as its lecturers do not participate in strikes called by the Academic Staff Union of Universities. It is thus generally believed that more students are attracted to it for this reason.

The last ASUU strike, which started July 1, 2013, lasted for 169 days.

Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka, has the second highest number of candidates with 77,626 applicants; while the University of Benin, with 76,928, gets the third position.

Fourth on the list is the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which has 69,838 applicants.

The University of Lagos has 61,926 applicants. No fewer than 61,600 candidates chose the university as their first choice; 300 as second choice; 24 as third and two as fourth choice.

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has 60,402 applicants.

In one of the extreme cases, however, only one candidate applied to study at the College of Education, Ankpa (affiliated to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi). The Immanuel College of Technology and Christian Education (affiliated to the University of Ibadan) and the ECWA Theological Seminary, Igbaja (also affiliated to UI) have three applicants each.

Other institutions with low number of applicants are the Umar Ibn Ibrahim El-Kanemi College of Education, Science and Technology, Bama, four candidates; the Archbishop Virgin College of Technology, Akure (affiliated to UI) five applicants; National Missionary Seminary of St. Paul, Gwagwalada (affiliated to the University of Port Harcourt), five candidates; while Kwara State College of Education (Technical) Lafia (affiliated to ABU, Zaria) has six candidates.

It will also interest experts to note that only 20,428 candidates applied to study at the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, that used to have a large number of applicants.

Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states are under emergency rule following the activities of Boko Haram insurgents. The attacks on schools by suspected Boko Haram members have resulted in the closure of many institutions in the states.

Fifty-two thousand, five hundred and thirty-three applicants chose the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; while 42,340 candidates chose to study in the nation's premier tertiary institution, UI.

Others include University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, 34,231; University of Abuja, 14,188; University of Port Harcourt, 38,001 and the University of Calabar, 33,931.

The University of Uyo has 41, 947 applicants, while 44, 845 candidates chose the University of Jos.

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states, has 19,381 candidates; 3,652 applicants applied to the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos; while 12,306 candidates are seeking admission to the Ogun State-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.

In the North, numbers of applicants for state institutions include Kaduna State University, 24, 196; Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudi, 6,131; Kebbi State University, 1,660; Kogi State University, 35,111 and Kwara State University, 4,326.

Others are Benue State University, 32,062; the North-West University, Kano (also owned by Kano State), 6,357; Nasarawa State University, Keffi, 27,305 and Plateau State University, Bokkos, 4,319.

The numbers of applicants for state-owned institutions in the South-East include Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, 15,228; Enugu State University of Science and Technology, 11,564; Imo State University, 45,761 and the Anambra State University, Uli, 7,287.

For the South-South, the applicants include Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, 28,567; Akwa Ibom State University, 6,798; Delta State University, Abraka, 34,208; Cross Rivers University of Technology, Calabar, 7,401; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, 25,250 and the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, owned by Bayelsa State, 21,250.