Only two Nigerian universities made the top 1,000 spot in the 2024 World Universities Ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE), a drop from three Nigerian universities last year.

According to this year's ranking released on Wednesday, the Covenant University, Ogun State and the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, are the only Nigerian universities in the top 1,000 spot.

Both universities were ranked between 800th and 1000th place. They are followed closely by the Federal University of Technology, Akure and the University of Lagos in the 1001 – 1200 spot.

Other Nigerian universities ranked between 1201 and 1501 are; Bayero University, Kano; University of Ilorin, Kwara state; and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.

This year, the THE World University Rankings reviewed submissions from 2,673 institutions but only 1,904 universities across 108 countries and regions made it to the rankings.

The remaining 769 institutions were simply listed as “reporters” for failing to meet the criteria for ranking.

Thirty-nine Nigerian universities submitted data. However, only 15 were featured in the rankings. The remaining 24 had the “reporter” status.

There are currently 264 universities in Nigeria. The federal government-owned are 51, state governments own 66 and private individuals/ organisations own 147.

Downward trajectory

In the 2023 ranking, the University of Ibadan (UI), University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Covenant University made the top 1,000 list.

The UI and UNILAG were placed at 401 to 500 place, while Covenant University was between 601 and 800th place. The number of Nigerian universities in the top 1500 also dropped from nine last year to seven this year.

Global Ranking

On a global scale, the University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK) maintained the top spot it has held for close to a decade. It is followed in second place by Stanford University, United States (US) which moved from fourth place last year. In third place is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, which moved from fifth place in the previous ranking.

Meanwhile, Harvard University, US fell from the second spot in 2023 to the fourth spot this year. The University of Cambridge also fell from the third spot last year to fifth this year.

Methodology

For the 20th edition of the World University Rankings, this year, THE said it updated its methodology to reflect the outputs of the diverse range of research-intensive universities across the world.

The university ranking body said it used five performance indicators, each of them further broken down to give a total of 18 indicators.

The five performance indicators include Teaching (the learning environment) 29.5 per cent; Research environment (volume, income and reputation) 29 per cent; Research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence) 30 per cent; International outlook (staff, students and research) 7.5 per cent; and Industry (income and patents) 4 per cent.

“We have moved from 13 to 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments,” it said in a publication.

“One of the metrics (study abroad) currently has zero weight but will be counted in future… The zero weight is a temporary provision due to the impact of COVID-19 on international travel.”

Data gathering method

THE said the institutions ranked provide the data used for the rankings.

In cases where the data provided by the universities did not meet the body's criteria, it simply would not rank such universities and instead list them at the bottom of the rankings with “reporter” status

It said: “Institutions provide and sign off their institutional data for use in the rankings.

THE added; “On the rare occasions when a particular data point at a subject level is not provided, we use an estimate calculated from the overall data point and any available subject-level data point. If a metric score cannot be calculated because of missing data points, it is imputed using a conservative estimate.

“By doing this, we avoid penalising an institution too harshly with a “zero” value for data that it overlooks or does not provide, but we do not reward it for withholding them.

“Universities at the bottom of the table that are listed as having “reporter” status provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank.”