.

Research evidence has shown that university-industry collaboration presents a wide range of benefits to industries, higher institutions and to the development of a nation. This study investigated the existence of university-industry collaboration; the factors militating against the collaboration and the extent to which university-industry collaboration can reduce unemployment in Nigeria. A descriptive survey was adopted with the use of structured questionnaire and an in-depth interview (IDI) to collect data using cluster random sampling technique to select a sample of 250 participants from three selected universities (FUTA, AAUA and AUO) and industries in Ondo State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study and the data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 20.0). The study revealed that a weak relationship (97% responses from respondents) exists between universities and industries in Nigeria. It also revealed that university-industry relationship will significantly reduce the level of unemployment among graduates in Nigeria. In addition, lack of interest on the part of industries and lack of awareness of the importance of university-industry relationship were discovered as the major factors militating against university-industry collaboration. Therefore The paper therefore concludes that strengthening university-industry collaboration through policy implementation by the Federal Government will create more industries and entrepreneurial businesses, thereby minimizing the rate of graduate unemployment in the country.