Only three Nigerian universities, the University of Ibadan (UI), University of Lagos (UNILAG), and Covenant University have been ranked among the 1,000 universities in the world in 2023.
This is captured in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023. The Times Higher Education ranked 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.
In the ranking, the University of Ibadan, comes best in Nigeria, followed by UNILAG and Covenant University.
The University of Ibadan is also the third best in Africa after the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and Aswan University in Egypt.
In the World University ranking released by the Times, the University of Ibadan was ranked between 401 and 500 best universities in the world.
UNILAG is also ranked between 401 and 500 best universities in the world but the University of Ibadan was ranked ahead of UNILAG due to certain indices the Times Higher Education considered.
Covenant University is ranked between 600 and 800 best universities in the world but came 10th in Africa. Asides from these three no other Nigerian university is ranked among the top 1,000 in the world.
The fourth and fifth best-ranked Nigerian universities-Bayero University Kano (BUK) and the Federal University of Agriculture (FUTA) ranked between 1,001 and 1,200 respectively.
While only three Nigerian universities were ranked among the first 1,000, Egypt has 14 universities and South Africa, has five universities ranked. Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda have one university ranked apiece.
However, the University of Oxford, United Kingdom has been ranked the best university in the world, followed by Harvard University in the United States, while the University of Cambridge is third.
The 10 best universities in the world are in the United States and the United Kingdom. While seven are in the United States, three are in the UK.
See the best 10 universities in the world below:
| 1 | University of Oxford
United Kingdom
|
20,965 | 10.6 | 42% | 48 : 52 |
| 2 | Harvard University
United States
|
21,887 | 9.6 | 25% | 50: 50 |
| =3 | University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
|
20,185 | 11.3 | 39% | 47: 53 |
| =3 | Stanford University
United States
|
16,164 | 7.1 | 24% | 46: 54 |
| 5 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States
|
11,415 | 8.2 | 33% | 40: 60 |
| 6 | California Institute of Technology
United States
|
2,237 | 6.2 | 34% | 37: 63 |
| 7 | Princeton University
United States
|
8,279 | 8.0 | 23% | 46: 54 |
| 8 | University of California, Berkeley
United States
|
40,921 | 18.4 | 24% | 52 : 48 |
| 9 | Yale University
United States
|
13,482 | 5.9 | 21% | 52: 48 |
| 10 | Imperial College London
United Kingdom
|
18,545 | 11.2 | 61% | 40: 60 |
According to the Times Higher Education, the table of the ranking was based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook.
“This year’s ranking analyzed over 121 million citations across more than 15.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 40,000 scholars globally. Overall, we collected over 680,000 data points from more than 2,500 institutions that submitted data.
“Trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments, and industry experts, this year’s league table reveals how the global higher education landscape is shifting,” it stated.
“The University of Oxford tops the ranking for the seventh consecutive year. Harvard University remains in second place, but the University of Cambridge jumps from joint fifth last year to joint third.
“The highest new entry is Italy’s Humanitas University, ranked in the 201-250 brackets. The US is the most-represented country overall, with 177 institutions, and also the most represented in the top 200 (58).
“Mainland China now has the fourth-highest number of institutions in the top 200 (11, compared with 10 last year), having overtaken Australia, which has dropped to fifth (joint with the Netherlands).
“Five countries enter the ranking for the first time – all of them in Africa (Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Mauritius).
“Harvard tops the teaching pillar, while Oxford leads the research pillar. Atop the international pillar is the Macau University of Science and Technology.
“Overall, 1,799 universities are ranked. A further 526 universities are listed with “reporter” status, meaning that they provided data but did not meet our eligibility criteria to receive a rank, and agreed to be displayed as a reporter in the final table,” they added.