ASUU Blames FG for Nigerian Universities’ Poor Ranking

Says only UI, UNN among the best 2,000 globally

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday decried the poor ranking of public universities in the country, stating that the positions of the universities have vindicated the resolve of the union that the federal government has failed to properly fund education.

With the 2020/2021 ranking released by the Centre for World University Ranking, only two universities in the country, University of Ibadan and University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), made the world’s best 2,000 universities.

According to the union, both universities, who presently hold national rankings of first and second in Nigeria could not make top 1,000 as the premier university is ranked 1,163 while University of Nigeria, Nsukka returned as 1,882 in the world.

However, unlike Nigerian universities, the first 13 universities in South Africa made the best 2,000 universities while seven of them made the best one thousand varsities in the world.

These are University of Cape Town (268), University of Witwatersrand (275), Stellenbosch University (429), University of Kwazulunatal (477), University of Pretoria (578), University of Johannesburg (706), North-west University (922)

By the ranking, University of

Ibadan is 8th in Africa followed by University of Western Cape, South Africa (1,158) that is ranked 9th on the continent.

The Chairman, University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, while reacting to the ranking, in a statement made available yesterday, maintained that the ranking has vindicated the struggle by ASUU to make government commit not less than 26 per cent of its national budget to education, lamenting that the best the President Muhammadu Buhari government has done is to reduce the budget yearly to about six per cent at present.

He said ASUU has been drawing government and Nigerians’ attention to the rot in the tertiary education system and was proven right by the 2012 Needs Assessment conducted by the federal government.

ASUU said that as revealed in the ranking, it has taken personal dogged efforts of research output of academics in the University of Ibadan and University of Nigeria to position Nigeria on the global map.

Akinwole noted that the only variable that made the two Nigerian universities to be ranked among the best 2,000 universities is in relation to the research performance where the University of Ibadan had 1,101 with a total score of 69.4, while Nsukka had 1,805 and a total score of 66.2.