English Language Proficiency and Academic Performance of New Entrants at the University of Benin, Edo State

English language proficiency is widely assumed to be a gateway competence for academic success in Nigerian universities, where English is the medium of instruction across all disciplines, yet the empirical relationship between entry-level language proficiency and first-year academic performance has been rarely examined at Nigerian institutions. This study investigates the relationship between English language proficiency and academic performance among first-year students at the University of Benin, Edo State. A validated English proficiency placement test was administered to three hundred and fifty new entrants across six faculties at the start of the 2023 to 2024 academic session, with first-semester grade point averages collected at the end of the session for the same cohort. The placement test assessed reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, grammatical accuracy, and academic writing competence. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the proficiency-performance relationship, controlling for faculty, gender, and secondary school state of origin. Results show a significant positive correlation between overall English proficiency scores and first-semester GPA, with reading comprehension and academic writing scores emerging as the strongest predictors. Faculty differences are significant, with arts and social science students showing stronger proficiency-performance associations than science and engineering students. Students from southern states score significantly higher on proficiency measures than those from northern states. Recommendations include mandatory language support programmes for students scoring below threshold on the placement test. Keywords: English proficiency, academic performance, university students, University of Benin, language placement.