Niyi Akinnaso
The question in the title is addressed
to proprietors, management, academics, administrative staff, students,
and alumni of Nigerian universities. Let me provide a working answer at
the beginning. Your university probably has no rank, at least not in the
top 1,000 universities in the world. In other words, except for the
University of Ibadan, your university is not good enough to be ranked,
according to Times Higher Education University Rankings 2016-17,
released recently. This would be THE’s 13th year of consecutive global
rankings of universities.
According to the 20-page ranking table,
the United States has 16 of the top 20 universities in the world, with
two American universities tied for 10th position, while the United
Kingdom has four and Switzerland one. The four British universities in
the top 20, and their world ranking, are: University of Oxford (1),
University of Cambridge (5), Imperial College (8) and University College
London (15). Except for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
Zurich, which takes the ninth position, the remaining positions in the
top 20 are taken by American universities, with the usual suspects in
the top 10 positions, including California Institute of Technology (2),
Stanford University (3), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4),
Harvard University (6), Princeton University (7), University of
California, Berkeley (10) and University of Chicago (10).
Before dismissing the ranking as either
elitist or not regional enough, it is important to take the methodology
into account. Although data were obtained from 1,313 of the world’s
leading research-intensive universities, only 980 institutions from 79
countries made the final ranking. The remaining institutions did not
earn enough points to be reasonably ranked. For example, a university
would be excluded if its research output amounted to fewer than 1,000
articles between 2011 and 2015 or a minimum of 150 publications a year.
In assessing research quality and its influence, 56 million citations to
about 12 million publications were examined across the universities
between 2011 and 2015.
However, citations were only one of five
major criteria employed in the ranking. Others are teaching (especially
learning environment); research (volume, income, reputation); industry
income (to measure research influence); and international outlook (of
staff, students, and research). The most weight is given to the trio of
teaching, research, and citations, each getting 30 per cent of the
points. When all five criteria were applied to universities in Africa,
only seven countries had universities which made the ranking. South
Africa comes top with six universities in the top 1,000, with the
University of Cape Town leading the pack at no 148 in the world. Egypt
has three universities; Morocco two; and one each from Uganda (Makerere
University), Ghana (University of Ghana), Kenya (University of Nairobi),
and Nigeria (University of Ibadan).
While University of Ghana is in the
601-800 bracket in the ranking, University of Ibadan is in the bottom
pile of 801+ bracket, along with the University of Nairobi and
University of South Africa. University of Ghana’s superior ranking is
due to greater attention to research and scholarly publications. While
Ibadan outscored Ghana in teaching and industry income, Ghana outscored
Ibadan in research, citations, and international outlook, in some cases
by a margin of 3 to 1.
To be sure, there are questions about
the suitability of world ranking to local universities, such as
Nigeria’s; nevertheless, there is some universal character to university
education, which is captured by shared patterns in teaching and
research practices.
That’s why there are those who’d rather
have their universities ranked by a reputable global institution, such
as Times Higher Education, which recognises this universality, than by a
corrupt or corruptible local institution, such as the National
Universities Commission, which has yet to answer serious questions about
its compromised system of programme evaluation and accreditation.
If the NUC never had enough funds to
carry out the evaluation and accreditation of courses, to the point of
charging some universities up to N15 million for the exercise, where
will it get the funds for a comprehensive ranking of all Nigerian
universities, especially now that the country is in recession?
If the purpose of the local ranking is
take into account the social, cultural, political, economic and other
environmental contexts in which Nigerian universities operate, then the
four major functions which feature in the missions of Nigerian
universities must be ranked, namely, teaching, learning, research, and
service. In addition, leadership, accountability, and financial
management must also feature in the ranking, because they impact
significantly on the main functions of the university.
Without a doubt, university ranking has
its own usefulness. If nothing else, it promotes healthy competition as
universities look for ways of improving on their ranking year after
year. It is tempting to request the NUC to study and digest the world
ranking of universities in the last five years in order to find out
exactly why Nigerian universities have fallen outside the radar.
However, it is an unnecessary request
because we know what is wrong with Nigerian universities. They are
underfunded. The teaching environment is of poor quality. Science and
computer labs are substandard. Libraries are poorly equipped, if at all.
Most university campuses are not on the nation’s power grid, leading to
the use of generators for two to four hours per day. Above all, there
is an acute shortage of academic staff in most departments in the
nation’s universities, public and private.
In this regard, why does the NUC always
fold its arms when the Academic Staff Union of Universities is on
strike, asking for more budgetary allocation to education? What has the
NUC done to ensure quality in course offerings apart from a one-off
accreditation? What has the NUC done about poor leadership and
corruption in the universities, which further limit the usefulness of
inadequate funds and erode academic quality and university integrity?
If, in spite of the foregoing, Prof.
Abubakar Rasheed and the NUC still want to go ahead with the proposed
ranking of Nigerian universities, then it is very important that the
criteria for the ranking be well-established and openly discussed with
appropriate stakeholders. Moreover, given the short gestation period of
the idea of ranking Nigerian universities, I think 2017 may be too soon
to start the venture. More preparation and consultation time are needed
if the exercise is to be of any use.
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