University Ranking

University Ranking: Not Yet Uhuru For Unijos

Atâyi Ezéchiel Opaluwah

The Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) under the leadership of Prof. Peter Okebukola recently presented to the Nigerian public, a ranking of universities in the country in hierarchical order that is in tandem with their performances in the assessment exercise carried out by the Commission viz Federal Universities, State Universities and Private Universities.

This write-up will have the Federal Universities and more particularly, The University of Jos as its showpiece in view of the undisguised fact that State Universities are products of ego-boosting idiosyncrasy and Babylonic self-monumentalisation by our legacy-at-all-cost conscious Governors who are besotted with contemptible disposition for sound intellectual and mental rigour that is the hall mark of University education, while their Private counterparts are merely icons of individualistic, religious and financial schemes. It is increasingly becoming apparent to all optimists that the essential values of higher education cannot be preserved by the ill-advised and often swift recourse to State and Private universities that are springing up in the country as these Universities are not founded on the same enlightened philosophy that informed the evolution of private universities in other climes.

The Nigerian Entrepreneurs, Politicians and organised religious bodies that are now rushing to establish Private and State Universities see them as leeway to renewal of electoral mandate, economic gain and evangelistic expansion as their dispositions and intent are not only self-oriented but a complete bastardisation of the genuine motivation for private intervention in university education. The glorious State and Private Universities that dominate the English and American academic landscape were set up to foster the ideals free speech and intellectual freedom, and by so doing, expand the frontiers of knowledge and not to make quick profits and foist a heap of religious do’s and don’ts on the Students as it is being done in Nigeria now. This explains the reason why the Federal Universities would remain the centres of intellectual excellence in this country for a very long time while the Private and State counterparts would remain basically, a political, economic and religious propositions, devoid of serious scholastic activities.

The ranking of the Federal Universities was purely based on quality of academic staff which according to NUC, is one of the most important index of university education as the academic staff were measured by the output in research, teaching and community service. Other indices used by the NUC to arrive at the rankings are: the level of scholarship and research grants won by such staff, the volume and quality of contributions to the advancement of knowledge, his/her ability to deliver good quality teaching, administrative experience, and level of commitment to serving the community within and outside the University.

A penetrative gaze at University education vis-à-vis teaching Staff formation reveals a pyramidal structure with the Assistant Lecturer at the base. From this grade, the diligent Staff moves up through the Lecturer II, Lecturer I, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor/Reader grades to the full Professorial rank. Consequently, it can be assumed that the full Professorial rank, which is the acme of an academic career in a University, embodies the best in the manifestation of the attributes of quality. The quality of academic Staff was also calculated by dividing the number of full Professors by the total number of academic Staff in a University and expressing this in a percentage. For the 2004 exercise, the score obtained was doubled as the indicator was given a 200% weighting.

It is noteworthy that there was a recent global ranking of the best 200 Universities which sent a staccato of cataclysmic and shocking waves across the academic world and the entire world at large. The exercise which was the first of its kind was carried out in December 2004 and it indicated that no Nigerian or African University made it to the best 200 Universities worldwide! Four American Universities namely: Harvard University, University of Beckley California, Massachusetts Institute of technology; and California Institute of Technology topped the list as the best four Universities in the world respectively while Oxford and Cambridge Universities came fifth and sixth respectively. The 200 elite Universities are located in 29 different countries of the world with the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia having the highest number of well-ranked Universities with a total of 62, 30, 17 and 14 entries in that order.

Indices used in assessing the best 200 Universities in the world include: teaching strength and research; international reputation; teacher/student ratio; research impact which was calculated by measuring citations in bolometric indices per faculty member (that is a measure of articles published in international journals by Lecturers of the Universities), and the proportion and percentage of international Students and international Staff on the Undergraduates and academic Staff roster of the Universities. Hence, the higher the number of foreign Undergraduates in a University, the higher its chances of becoming an elite institution ditto for international Staff. Similarly, the number of Nobel Laureates and the Pulitzer Prize winners on the academic Staff list of a University also increases its chances of being ranked as one of the best in the world.

Coming back to the NUC exercise, the ranking revealed the University of Ibadan as the Institution with the highest number of qualitative academic Staff with a low score of 49%, beating the University of Jos to a distant second position with 38% while Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Agriculture Abeokuta, University of Lagos and University of Ilorin came third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. The positions of old-time Universities like University of Benin, Ahmadu Bello University and University of Nigeria can best be depicted from the rear as they came third, fifth and seventeenth to the last respectively. The position of University of Ibadan on the list is undoubtedly indisputable as it is not unexpected of the Institution being Nigeria’s premier University with a clear advantage of age and largest history of aggregation of understanding Scholars. The University’s leadership position can also be explained on the basis of the rigour in the selection process for academic positions and the prudence in the recruitment of Staff.

However, the second position enjoyed by UNIJOS did not only come as a heart-warming news but also a pleasantly surprising one as celebrations, chest-thumping and self-adulation reverberated across the length and breadth of the University community and its Alumni Associations. Suffice it to say that this development ought to provoke deep introspection and extensive but positive aggregation of thoughts and actions that will set in motion, the machinery for the complete overhaul and repositioning of UNIJOS for greater efficiency and unarguable relevance in the global comity of Universities as it is NOT an impossibility for UNIJOS to emerge as one of the best 200 Universities in the world.

A concurrent consideration laced with a juxtaposition of the situation of things and the prevailing circumstances in UNIJOS with that of any of the five best Universities in the world brings to the fore, a totally appalling and seemingly hopeless position of things in UNIJOS. It will be prudent to state at this point that UNIJOS is being used here as a microcosm of what is presently obtainable in Nigeria’s 64 Universities.

It is an established fact that Harvard University alone has 40 Nobel Laureates among its academic Staff while the University of Beckley which came second boasts of 18 Nobel Laureates and 5 Pulitzer Prize winners on its academic Staff list. Of course, there is no gainsaying the inescapable fact that UNIJOS cannot boast of a single Nobel Laureate or Pulitzer Prize winner on its academic Staff list. This can be attributed to the long years of embarrassingly low budgetary allocation to Education, misplaced priorities and infrastructural decay occasioned by the systemic destruction and violation of academic sanctity during the dark days of unbridled military opportunism.

There is no denying the fact that UNIJOS boasts of an appreciable number of internationally and continentally renowned Scholars who have made their indelible marks in Medicine, Chemistry, French Literature, Botany, Zoology and Microbiology and Physics but the crystal-clear absence of facilities for research and experiment, lack of sponsorships for international fellowships and publications in highly reputable international journals, and the unavailability of a conducive and peaceful academic environment for unhindered learning have contributed in no small measure to the dwarfing of our academic Giants. A situation whereby a Professor in UNIJOS receives a miserly N3, 500 ($25) as research allowance on a monthly basis is monumentally reprehensible and should be discouraged. A case in point is the academic credibility of Prof. Philip Emeagwali who has continued to dazzle the world in computer and Robotics Engineering. Following closely is the nomination of Prof. Gabriel Oyibo for the Nobel prize in Physics (which no African has ever won). The Idah-born Professor wouldn’t have, in his widest dreams, thought of that nomination if he had remained in ABU. Also, Dele Olojede’s Pulitzer prize for his entry on the Rwandan massacre wouldn’t been made possible were he to stay put in Newswatch.

Furthermore, online statistics reveal that the 369 year-old Harvard University has a population of only 19, 638 Students and an academic Staff strength of 11,000. this is equal to a Teacher/Student ratio of 1:5 which gives room for adequate and serious intellectual brainstorming for both Students and Lecturers to enhance academic excellence whereas the Teacher/Student ratio in UNIJOS is about 1:50 and 160 (in courses like Accountancy, Business Management and Medicine). In the same vein, a Professor in UNIJOS is expected to teach for over 20 hours per week, supervise 30 undergraduate dissertations and lecture from Postgraduate to Remedial levels. This is more poignant in French and Natural Science departments which recently necessitated the suspension of some course at Postgraduate levels. All these, I must say, vitiate the mental capacity of Professors as it takes its toll on their health.

It is a well-known fact that before the advent of the Carnegie Partnership in UNIJOS, about 10 Students are assigned to only one Computer during Computer practical classes in the University’s Computer Centre. In this case, one or two Students will operate the Computer to the glee and admiration of the rest Students who act as “Secretaries” collecting information obtained by other Students! The level of Computer literacy and appreciation is very low in UNIJOS as many Lecturers mostly in Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences (particularly Political Science, History, Business Management, Economics, Linguistics and Religious Studies) cannot boast of a Personal Computer (PC), needless to mention, an electronic notebook. At Harvard, every Student can boast of either a Laptop or Personal Computer.

Considering Students population, Harvard, the 369 year-old University has a population of less than 20,000 Students while UNIJOS in its 30 years of existence boast of an equal number of Students also. A well-stocked library is the academic bank of every University. Harvard has the best University Library on earth with 15 million volumes as at 2004 and this is almost an equivalent volume of books found in all Nigerian Universities put together. Most Universities in Nigeria have a stock of 300,000 volumes of books in their libraries and there are approximately 48 functional Universities in Nigeria.

The pride of place enjoyed by funds in the education sector cannot be over-emphasised. Perhaps that underscores the rationale behind Harvard University’s intimidating Endowment Fund which is $23 billion. Following the lead of Harvard, UNILAG launched an Endowment Fund of $500 million in December 2003, which is about 1/50th of that of Harvard. It manifestly translates into 50 Nigerian Universities launching an Endowment Fund of $500 million each like UNILAG before arriving at equivalence with what is available to Harvard alone. Worth acknowledging is the fact that the import of funds is not lost on the current leadership in UNIJOS what with its highly commendable establishment of An Advancement Directorate which has, within its short span, performed brilliantly in attracting an appreciable level of goodwill and mutually beneficial partnerships to the University.

Considering Science and Technology, Harvard boasts of many scientific and technological instruments like the Electron Microscope, the Hable Telescope, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Machine, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which are evidently absent in Nigerian Universities. Only University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital can boast of the multi-millionaire equipment called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), even though the institution is still at loss on how to decode the facility from its present state of docility. At the level of Politics and Public Administration, Harvard University has produced top United States Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the current George Walker Bush while no University in Nigeria has ever produced a Nigerian President! The glaringly irrefutable fact still remains that UNIJOS has churned out a highly successful crop of Alumnus who have not only distinguished themselves in every field of human endeavour but also possess the requisite capacity to effectively lead Nigeria out of the woods.

Other debilitating factors that are peculiar to UNIJOS and must be quashed immediately are: incessant strike actions and closures; unstable and unpredictable academic calendars; admission racketeering; admission of poorly prepared and unmeritorious candidates on the basis of quota, catchment area and patronage disbursing; recruitment of Lecturers on the basis of filling ‘homeboy’ quotas; recruitment and advancement of Individuals who are barely lettered with atavistic dispositions to learning as administrative Staff; fraudulent and compensatory promotion of Staff to positions that are way beyond their capacities; crass materialism; making an industry of copyrights violation by way of handout sales to hapless Students, excessive religiosity and fanatism; higgledy-piggledy condition of hostels; and cultism.

It is needful to re-emphasise at this point that this piece is not an effusion of urbane uppity taste for whatever is foreign. Neither is a product of a proclivity for negativism and scepticism. It is also not a colossal exercise in self-depreciation and sinister critique but a patriotic wake-up call on all Stakeholders in the project UNIJOS, ranging from the University Leadership, Senate, ASUU, SSANU, NASU, Alumni, Organised Private Sector, and the Students Union to engender collaborative efforts aimed at arresting the probable decline of UNJOS to the abyss of global irrelevance. This is a genuine concern intended to stimulate thoughts, ideas and meaningful actions that will ultimately lift UNIJOS to the lofty but attainable height of global reckoning as a University of Jos that competes favourably and towers above other tertiary institutions in Nigeria and the world in general is the desire of ALL JOSITES who are truly GREAT in every sense of the word!

Atâyi Babs, is a Language Consultant with

Maxtel Communications Ltd, Abuja