Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has ranked the University of Ibadan (UI) first in its latest 2021 ranking.
The ranking which was carried out using twelve indicators involved one hundred and thirteen (113) universities across the country.
In a statement released by the commission on Monday, the NUC stated that the institutions were ranked based on total number of full time students, number of international students, students and staff ratio, efficiency, google scholar index and contribution to knowledge economy.
The statement listed other criteria to include; percentage of international staff, percentage of programmes with full time accreditation, all citation per capita, amongst others.
The lead presenter, Professor Peter Okebukola, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday during a capacity building workshop on improving the ranking of public universities in Nigeria, Organised by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND),
Okebukola, who spoke on the overview of global university ranking and the place of Nigerian higher education system in the knowledge economy, said the full report will be made available to NUC and uploaded on a website.
“You cannot get any form of ranking system in the whole wide world that does what Nigeria has done. For this 2021 edition, based on the 12 indicators that will have developed, University of Ibadan is the first followed by Federal University of Technology Akure.
“Next year we will look at the indicators that we used this year and see whether there are things to add or drop. So it is going to be an annual thing,” he said.
However, he lamented that some Universities did not show up for the ranking, while urging them to partake in the next ranking which has become an annual event.
The full report of the ranking which covers the best university in each region of the country with details of every statistics will be released soonest.
Earlier, the executive secretary of TETFund, Prof Elias Bogoro said the workshop was part of the strategies to reposition the university system in Nigeria.
He said Nigerian universities are not doing well in global ranking hence the need to reposition and showcase them to the world.
“The situation is so unfortunate and worrisome that it calls for reflection and action on the part of the government, the Nigerian intelligentsia and indeed the Nigerian people.
“It is challenging in the sense that the success of our universities is tied to the progress and development of the nation. If the Asian countries were able rise to such enviable place in the ranking of world universities, nothing stops Nigerian universities from making similar progress if they are so determined.
“Some of the problems identified as hindering the progress and performance of Nigerian Universities in the global ranking of world universities include:
Poor investment by some tiers of government in the development of universities.”
Speaking on “Requirement for Strengthening Nigerian Universities for Higher Global Ranking,” Bogoro said Nigerian universities must be repositioned to be competitive and to take the lead in research and innovation to promote the growth of our country and its economy.
He also encouraged all lecturers to aspire to have a PhD as teaching requirements.
On his part, the executive secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu, assured that ranking in 2022 will be much more Impressive.
He said in order to compete with ancient universities in the world, Nigerian tertiary education needs consistent improved funding, while commending the committee for coming up with a unique template for ranking of Nigerian universities.
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