UI, UNILAG, Covenant, four other Nigerian universities make list of world best varsities

Times Higher Education World University Rankings has released the 2022 World Best University ranking, placing the University of Ibadan (UI), University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Covenant University among the top 1000 universities in the globe.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 include more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

In the latest ranking, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) is in second place (501-600) and Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State third position (601-800), respectively. University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) was in the 4th position (1201+) while the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is in the 5th place (1201+).

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is in the 6th position (1201+) and the Lagos State University (LASU) occupying seventh place on the table.

The current ranking analysed more than 108 million citations across over 14.4 million research publications and included survey responses from almost 22,000 scholars globally.

The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

“Overall, we collected over 430,000 data points from more than 2,100 institutions that submitted data. This year’s league table reveals how the COVID-19 pandemic has started to shift global higher education performance,” Time Higher Education’s report said.

The US is the most-represented country overall with 183 institutions, and also the most represented in the top 200 (57), although its share of universities in this elite group is falling.

Harvard University tops the teaching pillar, while the University of Oxford tops the research pillar and Macau University of Science and Technology leads the international pillar.

The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the sixth consecutive year, while mainland China has two institutions in the top 20 for the first time: Peking University and Tsinghua University share 16th place.

Globally, the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Cambridge came second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

In Africa, the University of Cape Town, South Africa topped the continent’s representation occupying 183 on the global scale. Stellenbosch University came second (251-300) followed by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Kwazulu- Natal in that order.

The University of Ibadan that ranked first in the country scored 12.6 % in research, teaching 23.4%, citations 91.2, industry income 35.3, and international outlook 32.2% while the University of Cape Town, which ranked first in South Africa and the continent had 41.4% in research, teaching 31.4% citations 85.5, industry income 56.4% and international outlook 80.1 %.