South Africa, Egypt universities shade Nigerian counterparts in latest impact rankings

Beyond the global health challenge that the Coronavirus pandemic poses, management of Nigerian universities have learn lessons to learn from South Africa and Egypt in their style of university management which propels them to the top in Africa when it comes to global ranking of universities.

The recent 2020 Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings which left Nigeria several steps below its peers bears this assertion out.

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This ranking is a good resource for students in their choice of universities. It moves away from assessing universities on their research output, and focuses instead on the impact that universities are having on some of the world’s most pressing issues.

South African and Egyptian Universities have, in the last decade, provided increased competition to Nigerian universities in International outlook, knowledge transfer and research.

In the latest Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings, South African and Egyptian universities were top performers based on the countries’ average overall score among institutions in the top 200. While South Africa achieved an average score of 85.5 out of 100, Egypt achieved 75.4–83.3 out of 200.

This latest Rankings shows South African and Egyptian Universities outperforming Nigeria, a situation that can easily be traced to universities in both countries recognising and working hard to tackle global issues such as gender inequality, quality education for all, climate change, achieving peaceful societies and economic growth.

While South Africa’s University of Johannesburg ranked 75th among the top 100, Egypt’s Alexandria University and Benha University ranked 101-200 respectively while University of Pretoria in South Africa ranked 101-200.

Nigeria is feeling the heat as only University of Ibadan, Oyo State, ranked 201-300 among the world’s 300 best University Impact Rankings in 2020.

A breakdown of the ranking figure shows that University of Ibadan, Oyo State was the highest-ranked university in Nigeria while Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State secured the 401-600 ranking spot while University of Lagos and Lagos State University  hugged 601 spots out of the more than 700 universities ranked this year across the SDGs.

According to the latest figures, universities are ranked based on how they are committing to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a global call to action to tackle poverty, climate change and inequality.

In the global ranking, universities were assessed on how they are taking these global issues and incorporating them into their governance to show the real impact that universities are making on their students and wider communities.

Times Higher Education has put together the Impact Rankings to beam  searchlight on those institutions that are working hard to tackle global issues such as gender inequality, quality education for all, climate change, achieving peaceful societies and economic growth.

Analysts observe that Nigeria is not making the investments required to lift education to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals preferring to invest in physical infrastructure its leaders can use to campaign for votes, The Federal Government online recently propose a slash of N50.76billion from the N111.78 billion budgeted for Universal Basic Education Commission to bring it down to N61.02billion.

Ibidapo Obe, former vice-chancellor University of Lagos, says Nigeria compares poorly with countries like South Africa and Egypt when it comes to budgetary allocation because successive governments have paid little attention to education budget which in the last decade have not surpassed 8 percent allocation.

Obe opined that Nigerian universities cannot continue to operate the way they are and get the desired recognition in world rankings. He urged universities to re-strategise on ways to better market their products and services to a global audience.

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 him, 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.

“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”, Adeyemi said.