By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The nation’s premier University, the University of Ibadan is now ranked among the 1,000 best universities in the world in the just released ranking of Universities worldwide.
New Nigerian gathered from the latest 2016/2017 ranking that University of Ibadan was ranked as number 601 of all the 980 universities rated
The latest ranking was carried out by the top rated organisation Times Higher Education (THE) indicated that University of Ibadan was the only Nigerian university that made it to the top 1,000 globally ranked universities.
According to THE in the latest ranking on https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/name/University%20of%20Ibadan/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only, the rating
was based on Teaching , Research, Citations of scholarly publications, Industry Income and International outlook.
The raking showed the University of Ibadan coming behind the South African universities with University of Cape Town ranked 148 followed by Stellenbosch University (401), University of KwaZulu Natal (501).
University of Legon in Ghana was ranked as 601 and the only university from Ghana in the latest ranking which entered the list of top universities in the world, University
The ranking showed that only 22 universities in Africa made the world class universities with South Africa and Egyptian universities dominating the lasted ranking.
Commenting on the latest ranking, Vice Chancellor University of Ibadan, Professor Idowu Olayinka declared that the world class scholars at University must be engaged by Nigeria to solve her problems
Professor Olayinka while emphasizing that the University is blessed with world class scholars who are dedicated to their calling declared that the latest ranking “is a welcome development”.
The Vice Chancellor then called on the federal government to allocate special privilege funding to the University of Ibadan to improve research infrastructure to rise further in future ranking.
“The truth of the matter is that the Times Higher Education Rankings is one of the elite global ranking bodies. It is a thing of joy that we have a respectable position in comparison to peer universities in Africa. This is message to the federal government of Nigeria that we need funding to improve our research infrastructure and funding support in order to enhance productivity. We congratulate all faculty, staff and students who have made this feat possible. The federal government should learn to use research output from university of Ibadan to solve problems facing the country. We cannot have world class scholars in Nigeria and rely on those who have never conducted researches on our problems to come and solve our problems”.
