Lagos: In the early post-independence years, up to the 1980s, Nigerian universities were highly rated, attracting students from across the world. As years rolled by, the ratings plummeted, leaving Nigerian universities struggling to gain visibility on the global stage.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, in the recently released Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2026, Oxford University retains the number one spot for the tenth consecutive year, driven by a strong research environment score. Princeton rises to joint third place and is the only U.S. university to achieve its best-ever finish in the year, while China has five universities in the top 40, up from 2025. The rankings also show that India now has the second-highest number of ranked universities for the first time, behind only the U.S. Hong Kong occupies a record six spots in the top 200 as a result of improvements in teaching metrics.
The University of Ibadan, Oyo State, was ranked between 801 and 1,000 globally and ahead of other leading Nigerian universities. Following the University of Ibadan are the University of Lagos, Bayero University, and Covenant University, ranked second, third, and fourth in Nigeria, respectively. The list of the best universities in the world includes 2,191 institutions from 115 countries and territories. THE said its rankings are trusted worldwide by students, academics, governments, and industry experts.
Some stakeholders, such as the Chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee and a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, have commended the rankings. However, others argue that there is nothing to cheer about the feat of Nigerian universities in the rankings, as no Nigerian university reached the 401-500 band in the THE World University Rankings. When the rankings were released for 2024, Prof. Moses Idowu, a professor of Human Development, lamented that only 21 Nigerian universities were recognised out of a total of 274 universities in the country.
Prof. Temitope Babalola of the Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Management, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, said priorities had changed in Nigeria’s university system. In those glory days, public universities were established to meet the workforce demands of a newly independent nation and were, for a time, fully equipped to do so. The early universities, like the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the regional universities established in the early 1960s, received significant and consistent government investment.
Some stakeholders, such as Prof. Emmanuel Nwogwu, traced the decline in public universities to the 1980s, coinciding with economic downturns and a massive increase in student enrolment that was not matched by resource allocation. The quality-to-quantity ratio has plummeted; the most persistent challenge is the inadequate funding from the government. Poor remuneration, unfavourable working conditions, and instability caused by strikes have fuelled a massive brain drain, or what many refer to as the “japa syndrome.”
Other challenges persist, but experts say there has to be a roadmap to rebirth and strategies for the restoration of Nigerian public universities. They say the path back to prominence requires a multi-pronged approach involving a shared commitment from the government, university management, faculty, and the private sector. The focus must shift from simply managing decline to strategically pursuing excellence. It has to start with finding a sustainable funding model that is not solely reliant on unpredictable government revenue.