Per the new ranking released by THE’s World University Rankings 2024, Covenant University and the University of Ibadan have emerged as Nigeria’s highest-ranked institutions, securing positions within the 800-1,000 bracket. Covenant, a privately owned university, and the Premier University, the University of Ibadan, were also the only Nigerian universities in the top 1000 universities ranking globally.
The other Nigerian universities to come after these two were the Federal University of Technology Akure and the University of Lagos, which secured positions in the 1001–1200 band. As revealed in the list, Nigeria has two universities in the top 1,000 globally and seven in the top 1,500 worldwide.
This year’s rankings reveal some notable changes among the top 10 universities in Nigeria. The University of Ibadan has seen a significant shift, dropping from the 401-500 band last year to the 801-1000 band in the current rankings. Similarly, the University of Lagos, previously sharing the title of the best-ranked university in the country with the University of Ibadan, has experienced a decline, moving from the 401-500 band to the 1001-1200 band.
Notably, the World University Rankings 2024 methodology has been refined to provide unprecedented levels of depth, detail, and data assessment, making it one of the most robust rankings globally. This year’s rankings include 18 calibrated performance indicators, categorised into five pillars: teaching, research quality, research environment, international outlook, and industry. Notably, three new metrics focus on research quality, with one examining patents in the industry pillar.
Noticeably, there has been a decline in research quality in Nigeria relative to the rest of the world since 2021. In contrast, the country’s international score, compared to the global average, has been steadily rising over the last four years.
But on a positive note, the number of Nigerian universities in the rankings has grown considerably over the years with just four in 2020, six in 2022 doubling to 12 in 2023 and up to 15 this year.
Phil Baty, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Times Higher Education, commented on Nigeria’s academic landscape, stating, “While Nigeria’s universities faced several setbacks this year, what is particularly encouraging is that more and more universities in the country are submitting data to the rankings.”
“They are keen to stand up and be counted, to compete, and importantly, to make their presence felt on the global university stage. Only with this kind of rigorous, global benchmarking can Nigerian universities identify the challenges and opportunities for improved international competitiveness. We strongly encourage even more universities in the country to participate in the most comprehensive, authoritative, and rigorous ranking of its kind in the world and to deploy the data to develop a clear pathway to success.”
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More on the Times Top Universities ranking
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, featuring 1,904 universities from 108 countries and regions. The 2024 rankings stand out as the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment of research-intensive universities, incorporating 18 performance indicators that encompass the core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and internationalization.
In the global rankings, the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford takes the top position, followed by Stanford University in the United States in second place and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in third place. These rankings serve as a testament to the global excellence of these institutions and their dedication to advancing education and research.
THE has been providing trusted performance data on universities for students and their families, academics, university leaders, governments and industry, since 2004. The institution creates university rankings to assess university performance on the global stage and to provide a resource for readers to understand the different missions and successes of higher education institutions.
The ranking provides the definitive list of the world’s best universities, with an emphasis on the research mission. It is the only global university league table to judge research-intensive universities across all of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); industry income (knowledge transfer) and international outlook (staff, students and research). It uses 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons.
The see the complete list of universities, you can click here.
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