‘Corruption, Mushroom Varsities Hindering Global Ranking of Tertiary Education System’

‘Corruption, Mushroom Varsities Hindering Global Ranking of Tertiary Education System’

Funmi Ogundare

The Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Fund (TETfund), Prof. Suleiman Elias Bogoro, yesterday attributed corruption in the public university system and the high number of mushroom universities as some the factors hindering the performance of Nigerian universities in the global ranking of world universities.

Bogoro who disclosed this at a two- day workshop on requirements for strengthening Nigerian universities for higher global ranking, in Lagos, listed other factors inhibiting it to include; poor attitude of Nigerian lecturers to teaching and research, large numbers of students at the undergraduate level and limited financial and physical resources, poor investment by some arm of government in the development of universities.

According to him, others include decaying infrastructure, low research out-puts, low performance on international linkages and collaborations, loss in quality of faculty due to brain drain of lecturers and brilliant students to foreign institutions.

He described the situation as very unfortunate and worrisome saying that it calls for reflection and action on the part of the government, the Nigerian intelligentsia and the Nigerian people as a whole.

“It is challenging in the sense that the success of our universities is tied to the progress and development of the nation,” he said, adding that if the Asian countries were able rise to such enviable place along the ranking of world universities, nothing stops Nigerian universities from making similar progress if they are so determined.

He emphasised the different approaches and methodologies employed in the assessment and ranking which make clear the performance and standing of these universities, saying, “some of the indicators include teaching, research, citations, international outlook, industry income, academic and employer reputation, Faculty/student ratio, international faculty ratio and international student ratio.”

The executive secretary expressed concern that today in the global ranking of universities, Nigerian universities are not doing well and are not known to have been on the World Ranking Review (W.E.N.R), out of about four selected different rankings across the world, such as the CNT Leiden ranking, Shanghai Jiao Tong academic ranking, QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) world university ranking and Times Higher Education world university ranking.

According to him, “universities from the USA, UK and Europe generally dominate the list of the different rankings. The QS 2021 ranking mostly feature Harvard, Oxford, MIT, Cal Tech, Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Imperial College, UCL and the university of Chicago as the top 10 highest ranking universities in the world.

“This is very similar to the Time Higher Education (THE) ranking for the same period. The University of Ibadan tops the list for Nigeria universities, ranking 401 500th on the Time Higher Education 2022 table.

“Other Nigeria universities that made it to the top 1000 on the THE 2022 table are the University of Lagos, 501- 600 and Covenant. University Ota, 601 – 608, “ he stressed.

In the 2021 THE table, the Lagos State University ( LASU), Ojo, was ranked 501-600 second to the University of Ibadan.”

For Nigerian universities to be competitive, Bogoro stressed the need for them to ensure that all lecturers must aim to have a Doctorate of Philosophy as an essential requirement for teaching and research, that universities must develop strong democratic leadership in their administration, develop collaborative association with industries, foreign universities, linkages and donor agencies in multiple capacities that increase funding for research, teaching and other essential facilities, as well as identifying strong programmes and building on them through endowment of chairs in medicine, engineering, security or other fields of science and technology.

“While we genuinely and vigorously pursue and strive to strengthen universities to be globally competitive, we must ensure that such improvement is carried out carefully and with professionalism,” the executive secretary said.

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