The Nigeria Leads World Universities From Behind

There has been so much commotion over the poor ranking of Nigerian universities on the world platform this year. One who is not keen on these rankings would assume Nigeria only started featuring now; perhaps, it is because in all the major rankings Nigerian universities seem to be taking the backseat, even in Africa. Webometrics, Top study links, Top University Rankings, Times Higher Education are some of the reputable websites that have released rankings where Nigeria performed poorly.

In the Webometrics ranking of African universities this year, nearly 10 South African universities were mentioned in the first 15, then the University of Ghana which is gulping more than N140 billion of Nigerians money, much higher than our national budget for education, before there is any mention of a Nigerian university.

University of Nigeria Nsukka is ranked 5,176th in the world, University of Lagos 5,253rd, Obafemi Awolowo University 5,883rd, Ahmadu Bello University 6,270th and that is about all the universities that featured.

As for the top study links rankings, the University of Ilorin which appears to be leading other Nigerian varsities is ranked first in Nigeria but 2,668th in the world. The least is Usmanu Danfodio University which is ranked 11,603rd in the world.

The parameters for assessing universities generally are size of universities, their visibility, the quality and quantity of their research papers or publications and the quality of their scholars.

According to the Webometrics, this is important because web publication is cheaper, maintaining the high standards of quality of peer review processes. It could also reach much larger potential audiences, offering access to scientific knowledge to researchers and institutions located in developing countries and also to third parties.

It is not difficult to see why Nigerian varsities are making little impact on the rankings. Many universities have dormant websites with outdated information and do not parade any single research work of its scholars.

Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Professor Julius Okojie, however, argues that some research work of academics in the universities might not be published by the international community because it might be considered irrelevant to them.

Professor Okojie admitted, though, that Nigerian universities have a reputation problem.

"The philosophy behind ranking is the issue of your presence on the internet. The other one is the issue of reputation a university has. A university has to have reputation but for us generally if you say you are from a Nigerian university then there is a reputation issue," Okojie said.

But who is to be blamed for this poor performance. Hang the government for it, says Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. During a public lecture where he was the speaker at Baze University, Abuja, Lamido said a comparative analysis of the expenditure on education in 14 countries at various levels of development between 2006 and 2009 revealed that countries such as Sweden, Botswana, Moldova, France, South Africa and Canada spent on average of between 5.1 and 8.4 per cent of their GDP on education compared to less that 2 percent in Nigeria.

Lamido also said, "in the early 70s, average public expenditure on education was about 40 percent of total government spending - with a population of less than 50 million, today, average government spending on education is less that 2% - with a population over 160 million."

Inadequate funding has caused so much havoc for universities. With just over N11 billion as capital grant for federal varsities, many manage to survive with very little left for development. Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos Professor S.G Tyoden believes our poor rankings are something to be concerned about as universities are expected to have global character.

"The situation in universities is pathetic. Infrastructure is decaying, only few universities have functional websites and it is an instrument for assessment. Your lecturers cannot write papers or books that are internationally recognized because the environment for research is not friendly. These are elements that create visibility. We need to declare a state of emergency in our universities," he said.

Even President Goodluck Jonathan is adding his voice to say a situation where no Nigerian university is ranked among top 300 universities in the world was not good enough. He has even challenged universities to aspire to join the league of world's best 100 universities at the next count; as if it were magic.

He said that one area of concern in our university system is postgraduate education which is the cornerstone of research and ground-breaking discoveries. He therefore called for engagement in high quality research, teaching and community service on the part of universities, as well as urged them to partner fully with the Federal Government in the effort to turn tertiary education.

The University of Ilorin for example has a ratio of 60:40 in favour of postgraduate education. While most of what the President is saying may be dismissed as the usual 'government promises' without action, at least some universities are making the effort to improve. The University of Calabar and Ahmadu Bello University are examples.

To this end, Vice Chancellor of ABU Prof Abdullahi Mustapha said: "We are working on our ICT facilities, this is very crucial to the ratings so we would be the best in the country. We are also sensitizing lecturers to bring up their papers and other research so we can post them on the website."

As for the University of Calabar, the school has invested most of its revenue (over N70 million) in building a strong ICT base.

"Right now, we are already experimenting ICT cloud all around the campus. This is still at the experimental stage, but we hope that by the time the students resume, we will have ICT cloud perfected all over the campus. And in the Library now, we have a 200 seats computer hall that you can use to access the internet. This would ease students' registration. The essence is that in the very near future, we should be doing away with as much paper as possible and be getting information through our laptops. We have already told everyone to get e-mail addresses - that is being worked on," vice chancellor of the university, Prof James Ekope said.

The introduction of institutional accreditation by the NUC would also help in some way because it would reveal the relevance of programmes being offered in Nigerian universities to our immediate and national needs.