Nigerian varsities fail to make world best 400

A study by the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings has shown that no Nigerian university made the top 400 in the world.

The report, ‘World University Rankings 2013-2014,’ which was released on Wednesday, also showed that no African university was on the list of 100 most reputable in the world.

The top 10 universities in the world, according to the report, are the California Institute of Technology, with 94.9 aggregate score. It was followed by Harvard University (USA), 93.9; University of Oxford (UK), 93.9; Stanford University (USA), 93.8.

Others are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), 93.0; Princeton University (USA), 92.7; University of Cambridge (UK), 92.3; University of California, Berkeley (USA), 89.8; University of Chicago (USA), 87.8; and the Imperial College, London (UK), 87.5.

In Africa, only three South African institutions made the list. They are the University of Cape Town, ranking 126th and scoring 50.5; University of Witwatersrand, between 226th and 250th; and the Stellenbosch University, between 301st and 350th.

The UK varsities top the list in Europe, with Oxford University as the leader, followed by the University of Cambridge and Imperial College, London. ETH Zürich-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (Switzerland) is fourth in Europe and 14th in the world. The University College, London (UK) is fifth and 21st in the world.

The University of Tokyo (Japan), 23rd in the world, is leading in Asia. The National University of Singapore, 26th in the world, is second in the continent. Others are the University of Hong Kong, 43rd in the world; Seoul National University (Republic of Korea), 44th in the world; and the Peking University (China), 45th.

In North America, the USA had the top 19 universities. The University of Toronto (Canada) came 20th, at 78.3.

The University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) leads in South America and ranks between 226th and 250th. The University of the Andes came second between 251st and 275th; State University of Campinas (Brazil) is third between 301st and 350th.

Australia has the first five universities in the Oceania. They are the University of Melbourne (34th), Australian National University (48th), University of Queensland (63rd), University of Sydney (72nd) and the Monash University (91st).

The Times said the rankings “are the only global university performance tables to judge world-class universities across all of their core missions — teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.”

It added that, “The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.”

By reputation, however, the organisation said Harvard University had 100 per cent. It was followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (87.6 per cent), University of Cambridge (81.3), University of Oxford (73.0) and the University of California, Berkeley (72.4).

The report said the ‘World Reputation Rankings’ employed the world’s largest invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands

Punch