FIFTY-ONE Nigerian universities have been ranked among the best in Africa in the Times Higher Education Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings.
The rankings, which followed a survey conducted by Times Higher Education, was published on Monday, June 26.
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, was ranked as Number 7 out of a total of 121 Sub-Saharan Africa universities, and the first in Nigeria.
The other Nigerian universities that made the ranking are Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (26th), Benson Idahosa University (30th), Nnamdi Azikiwe University (31st), Redeemer’s University (35th), University of Ibadan (36th), CRUTECH (37th), OAU, Ife (39th) Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University (43rd), Adeleke University (45th), and Ahmadu Bello University (46th).
Also on the list are University of Benin (47th), Landmark University (49th), Babcock University (50th), Ajayi Crowther University (51-60th), Bells University of Technology (51-60th), Federal University Kashere (51-60th), Federal University Lokoja (51-60th), Gombe State University (51-60th), Lagos State University (51-60th), University of Port Harcourt (51-60th), Baze University (51-60th), Delta State University (61-70th), Elizade University (61-70th), Niger Delta University (61-70th), Abia State University (71+), Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (71+), Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Ikere (71+), Bauch State University (71+), Bayero University (71+), Edo State University (71+), LAUTECH (71+), Lead City University (71+), NOUN (71+), Glorious Vision University (formerly Samuel Adegboyega University (71+), Veritas University (71+), and Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano (71+).
According to Time Higher Education, 88 universities had enough student survey responses, overall score and rank, while 33 have incomplete data and pillar scores, but were not ranked overall.
The organisation explained that the ranking was developed through extensive engagement with university leaders across the region, under a project initiated by a consortium of African and international higher education institutions.
It stated that a hybrid methodology was used to account for the diverse strengths of the universities by focusing on the elements of teaching, impact and research.
According to the methodology, the ranking was based on five pillars – resources and finance (20 per cent); access and fairness (20 per cent); teaching skills (20 per cent); student engagement (20 per cent) and Africa impact (20 per cent).
Factors considered include disability access and support, skills-building that institutions provide, practical learning courses and experiential learning.
Others include student engagement schemes like work-readiness institutions provide to students, and intellectual growth as citizens.
The acceptability of researches produced by institutions and their adoption by other researchers in Africa were also considered as criteria for the evaluative ranking.
The delegation from Nigeria that attended the event where the ranking was released, in Accra, Ghana, was led by the Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee, Peter Okebukola, a professor.
Commenting on the performance of Nigerian universities in the ranking, Okebukola, a former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), noted that Nigerian universities did well while stressing the need for improvement.
Okebukola assured that Nigerian universities would leap to the lead by the the next and subsequent editions of the Sub-Saharan Africa university rankings.
“We will continue to improve on the metrics through better quality teaching, especially with the incoming Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards Research and provision of better services for our students,” he said.
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