University entrance Requirements and Students' Academic Performance

This paper examined impacts of entrance requirements on students’ academic performance in Nigeria. A given cohort of students in Department of Economics, University of Ilorin, Nigeria is chosen as the sample frame for the study. Both descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analysed the data collected from the existing records of the students using proforma. The results revealed that: (i) high scores in UME, good grade in O’Level English and passing the require number of credits in one sitting of O’Level examination influence positively students academic performance at first year of their study; (ii) male students perform is on the average better than their female counterpart at first year, the perform of students who had credits in one Art or one Commerce subject to make up the require number of credits, is lower; and (iii) only UME scores and one O’Level sitting positively impacted on final year academic performance, while students with one Art or one Commerce graduated with lower grades. It is therefore recommended that candidates with one sitting O’Level result, high UME scores should be given priority in admission to the Department of Economics, while students with credit in O’Level Art or Commerce subjects instead of social sciences subject should be given less priority.