Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), has been rated the best university in Nigeria and one of the best 400 in the world by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.

The 12 -year- old ABUAD was ranked first while Covenant University and University of Ibadan were ranked second and third respectively.

This was made known in a statement by the institution’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Tunde Olofintila, to newsmen in Ado-Ekit,i on Sunday.

The statement, entitled “ABUAD ranked Best University in Nigeria and one of the Best 400 in the world,” reads :

“The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, respected worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts, focuses on “helping the world’s universities to achieve excellence” by looking at performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across four key areas of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

“The International Ranking Body is also the definitive source of data, insight and expertise on higher education worldwide while its business is built on 10 million datapoints from 2,500 institutions in 93 countries, on unrivalled news, insight and intelligence; and on a relationship of trust with universities spanning 50 years.

“The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 included more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories, making them the largest and most diverse university rankings to date.

“This year’s ranking analysed more than 108 million citations across over 14.4 million research publications and included survey responses from almost 22,000 scholars globally. Overall, we collected over 430,000 datapoints from more than 2,100 institutions that submitted data.

“The global ranking for ABUAD is coming 10 months after the Alper-Doger Scientific Index, ranked the same university as the “Best Research University” among the 99 Private Universities in Nigeria and No. 10 out of 197 Public and Private Universities in Nigeria in July 2021.

“The cheering news was published on the website of The Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ website.

“This was later followed by a letter dated Wednesday, April 27, 2022 and titled “2022 THE Impact Rankings” by the highly celebrated former NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Peter Okebukola, a renowned crusader for quality and functional education

“In his letter to Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Okebukola said: “The 2022 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (measured against the SDGs) were released today. The top three universities are 1st – Afe Babalola University, 2nd – Covenant University and 3rd – University of Ibadan.

“Others are : University of Oxford, United Kingdom, California Institute of Technology, United States of America, Harvard University, United States, Stanford University, United States, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States, Princeton University, United States, University of California, Berkeley, United States, Yale University, United States, and The University of Chicago, United States.

“Yet others are Columbia University, United States, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, Johns Hopkins University, United States, University of Pennsylvania, United States, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Peking University, China, Tsinghua University, China, University of Toronto, Canada, UCL, United Kingdom, University of California, Los Angeles, United States, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Cornell University, University, United States, Duke University, United States and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, United States as well as Northwestern University, United States among others.

“Our (NUC) Executive Secretary, H.A.E. Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, min, MFR, FNAL, HLF, congratulates the universities and entreats that we should strive to get many more Nigerian universities in the top 200 in the next few years.

“By our strategic plan 2022-2030, the Nigeria Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC) will work with all universities in the system to ensure that we are no pushover on the global league tables from 2023”.

“Reacting to the cheering news, the obviously elated Ag. Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. E. Smaranda Olarinde, who received it with utmost gladness, attributed the uncommon feat to the cooperation which the University has consistently received from all stakeholders such as the National Universities Commission, NUC, the Medical & Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, Council for Legal Education and the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, among others, the parents, the ever-committed teachers and the teeming student population of the University.

“Olarinde was particularly happy that people and organizations outside Nigeria are following ABUAD’s achievements with keen interest since it commenced Academic works on Monday, January 4, 2010 whereby it has institutionalized qualitative and functional education, raised a new generation of Nigerians and ensured that Nigeria regains its lost glory in education.

“The university boss thanked the parents and other well-wishers who have inundated her and the University with congratulatory messages on this monumental achievement.

“With all these, Olarinde said that the Founder & Chancellor of the University, Aare Afe Babalola’s goal of seeing ABUAD becoming one of the best 100 universities in the world is imminent.” (Daily Sun)

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