Only one Nigerian university ranked among world’s top 800 universities

Only one Nigerian university
is ranked among the top 800
universities in the world,
according to Times Higher
Education World University
Rankings for 2015/2016
released this week.
PREMIUM TIMES’ analysis of
the report showed that the
University of Ibadan,
Nigeria’s oldest university, is
ranked 601st of the world’s
top 800 universities featured
in the survey, 200 steps lower
than Makerere University,
Uganda, which is ranked
401st.
The ranking was released on
Wednesday, September 30,
2015.
The University of Cape Town,
South Africa, at 120th
position, is the highest
ranked university in Africa,
481 steps higher than the
University of Ibadan.
Five other South African
universities are included in
the list of top notch
universities in the world,
making it the highest from a
single African country.
They are University of
Witwatersrand (20ist);
Stellenbosch University
(301st); University of
KwaZulu-Natal (401st);
University of Pretoria (501st);
and University of South
Africa (601st).
Three Egyptian universities,
Alexandria University, Cairo
University, and Suez Canal
University are all ranked
601st on the list.
Just like Nigeria and Uganda,
only one Ghanaian
university, the University of
Ghana is on the list, and it is
ranked 601st.
Morocco too has only one
university, University of
Marrakech Cadi Ayyad
(601th), on the list.
Altogether, 13 universities
from six African countries
are included among the top
800 universities in the world.
But despite having only one university in
the ranking, this year’s rating is a great
leap for Nigeria. No Nigerian university
has featured in the ranking since 2011
when the survey began.
The California Institute of Technology,
United States, occupies the number one
spot in the world.
The University of Oxford, United
Kingdom is on the 2nd position, while
Stanford University, United States and
University of Cambridge, United
Kingdom are on the 3rd and 4th
positions respectively.