Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria with 170 universities can learn lessons from South Africa university system that continues to top in Africa when it comes to global ranking of universities, figures from The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 show.
South African universities have in the last decade provided increased competition to Nigerian universities in international outlook, knowledge transfer and research.
According to the latest THE World University Rankings, universities globally were assessed using performance indicators that are grouped into five areas – teaching, which has the do with learning environment; research, which assesses the volume, income and reputation of each citadel of learning.
Other performance indicators include citations (research influence); international outlook, this accounts for the number of staff, students and research carried out in each institution ranked, and industry income (knowledge transfer).
In the last three years, figures from THE World University Rankings show South African universities outperforming Nigerian, a situation traced to the country’s recognition of education as a national priority.
While South African universities like University of Cape Town ranked 136, Witwatersrand ranked 194, Stellenbosch University ranked 251 and five others ranked in the top 1,000 globally. On the other hand, Nigeria is feeling the squeeze as only Covenant University ranked 401, University of Ibadan 501 and University of Lagos 801 made the cut in the top 1,000 top universities.
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According to THE analysis of international outlook, Covenant University, the highest-ranked Nigerian university, scored zero for the reason that there are no international students. The University of Ibadan had a 1 percent score on international outlook, which is a reflection of the number of international staff and students and research with a global outlook from any university ranked.
Toyin Adeyinka, a graduate of International Law and Diplomacy, Witwatersrand University, South Africa, in a telephone interview with BusinessDay, says infrastructure, flexible course models and a progressive knowledge transfer approach are some of the positive indicators that give universities in South Africa the edge over her Nigerian counterparts.
Adeyinka observes that while lecturers in Witwatersrand University are ever ready to encourage students to project their on point of views in class, research work and assignments, the same cannot be said in Nigerian universities where lecturers frustrate the effort of students who go the extra mile to carry out wider scope of research.
“Teaching system in Nigeria is flawed; there are not enough research facility to equip students to carry out proper research work,” Adeyinka notes.
David Ibidapo, a doctorate student at Covenant University, Otta, Ogun State, says it is not surprising that the university continues to outperform other Nigerian citadel of higher learning in the area of ground breaking researches.
Ibidapo says one model that has worked for the private university is in the area of grooming students right from their undergraduate levels on carrying out standard researches with zero tolerance for plagiarism.
According to Ibidapo, “Postgraduate (Masters and PhD) students are also encouraged to form research clusters with lecturers – this cluster consists of scholars from different academic fields and departments – with the aim to proffer solutions to identified national or economic challenges.”
Commenting on knowledge transfer, he notes that year in year out, the university through partnerships and sometimes self-sponsorship, organise goal targeted seminars and trainings for both lecturers and students in other to boost efficiency, which later rubs off on the university.
Analysts believe that Nigerian university curriculum has the capacity to meet labour market needs, but the universities fail to deliver such curriculum in a way that will meet those needs.
Peter Okebukola, distinguished professor of Science Education, Lagos State University (LASU) and chairman of Council, National Open University of Nigeria, while proffering solutions to the problem, says to improve the ranking of Nigerian universities globally, all existing federal universities need to have their infrastructure elevated to world-class status.
“Beyond paper, a six-hour flight to South Africa to see the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and another flight to the University of Cape Town will give us an idea of what world-class facilities are for a university,” Okebukola says.
Okebukola is quick to point out that owing to interruptions in the academic calendar, inadequacies in laboratory and workshop facilities, depressed quantity and quality of lecturers in engineering, poor reading culture of students, examination inadequacies and a host of other process variables, the curriculum is delivered less than it is intentioned.
In his views, the best approach to tackle the mismatch is to ensure that all ingredients are in place to ensure that the curriculum is delivered 100 percent as intended.
“This will involve resourcing the universities adequately, providing well-motivated teachers in the right quantity and quality, admitting quality candidates with good reading culture and who will shun social vices and continually reviewing the curricula to respond to changes in the needs of the labour market,” he states.
Nigeria compares poorly with education not ranked very high on the priority list of successive government, as budget allocations have yet to surpass 8 percent in the last four years.
The analysts observe that Nigeria is not making the investments required to lift education, preferring to invest in physical infrastructure its leaders can use to campaign for votes. In the 2018 budget, Nigeria spent N555.88 billion to build roads and power lines while N61.73 billion was budgeted for education.
The universities can exemplify the challenges at the higher education level, says Isaac Adeyemi, former vice-chancellor, Bells University of Science and Technology, Otta, Ogun State.
According to Adeyemi, “The 170 universities in Nigeria today are faced with a host of quality challenges. Majority of the universities are grossly understaffed, relying heavily on part-time and visiting lecturers, have under-qualified academics and have no effective staff development programme outside the Tertiary Education Trust Fund intervention and the Presidential First Class Scholarship programme.”
In the opinions of educationists worried about the current trend, Nigerian universities cannot continue to operate the way they are and get the desired recognition in world rankings.
They call on universities to re-strategise on ways to better market their products and services to global audience.
“Nigerian universities need to create a world-class learning environment if they ever want to be taken seriously in the comity of well-rated universities in the world,” they say.
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