Nigerian universities were outflanked and unsure footed on the Times Higher Education’s 2017 ranking in the BRICS and emerging economies, comprising 300 higher institutions of learning as the University of Ibadan came in 250.
The BRICS is an economic bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and emerging economies are characterised as rapidly growing and volatile economies. They promise huge potential for growth but also pose significant political, monetary, and social risks.
Commenting on the value of higher education rankings for emerging economies, Halima Begum, who at the time was the British Council’s regional director for East Asia and a former senior education specialist at the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, wrote in Times Higher Education in 2014 that “in many ways the importance of rankings in the developing world far outweighs their value to universities in more advanced economies.”
Begum added “policymakers across Asia often place far more store in universities and the crucial role they can play in driving national growth and competitiveness, than their counterparts in the developed world. Rankings are a yardstick to measure that progress; they help focus government attention on education policy.”
The five top ranked universities were Peking University in China, with 42, 977 full time students, student to staff ratio of 8.8 and 15 percent of its student population is international. The second was Tsinghua University, China, 41,537 students, student staff ratio of 14.1 and 10 percent international students.
The third was Lomonosov Moscow University, a total student population of 29,563, staff student ratio of 7.4 and 21 percent of its student population is international. The University of Cape Town, South Africa was fourth with a total student population of 20,061, staff student ratio of 11.6 and 18 percent of the student population is international. The fifth is University of Science and Technology, China with a total student population of 14, 827, staff student ratio of 8.1 and 3 percent international students.
In the West African sub-region, only the University of Ghana, Legon made it onto the top 150 as it ranked 125, with a total student population of 37, 804, staff student ratio of 31.7 and 2 percent international student. The University of Ibadan came in 250 with a total student population of 26,753, staff student ratio of 17.3 and 1 percent of international student.
Unsurprisingly, the universities with the fewest students per staff member are small universities with a total enrolment of less than 5,000 students. But many larger institutions, such as Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which has more than 15,000 students, also manage to maintain a favourable student-to-staff ratio. The range of staff student ratio at these universities is 0.6 to 3.6.
“It is difficult to expect much more than we are getting! The parameters for the ranking of world universities vary slightly from one ranking agency to the other. At present there are three known ranking agencies in the world. However the major indices include visibility through publications, patents and inventions” said Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, former vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos in an emailed response to BusinessDay’s inquiry.
Ibidapo-Obe added, “the destination of graduates in the work place also counts, as well as the international mix of staff and students. Earlier some of our older universities that are able to have these parameters lost it during the incessant strikes by staff and students of the universities. We need steady calendar to attract international staff and students. We need a reasonable level of research infrastructure to publish peer reviewed articles in high impact journals and we need excellent teachers to enable our graduates to perform confidently in the work place.”
In November 2016, Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, the executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) said the fund has spent N1.7 billion on the National Research Fund but the researches have not translated into any improvement in the ranking of tertiary institutions in the country.
“TETFund has spent N1.7 billion on National Research Fund but what has the nation benefitted? Grants (to researchers) will henceforth be based on performance-based research,” he said. The Fund has budgeted N1 billion for the National Research Fund.
People familiar with Nigeria’s education space say this cannot be otherwise in the face of poor resourcing of universities. Where equipment is in short supply relative to student enrolment for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the teacher has little choice other than to skip practicals.
“What kind of practicals can you do with kerosene stove instead of nunsen burner as revealed by the 2012 needs assessment survey? What kind of practical requiring electricity and water can you run when power and water supply to the university is a mere trickle and the laboratories are not served? What about some of the teachers themselves who have limited skills in practicals and hence are limited in the kind of practical sessions they can expose their students to?” queried Peter Okebukola, former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission in an emailed response.
Okebukola added, “owing to a consternation of factors, chief of which are poor research capacity of staff in the Nigerian university system and the non-salutary research environment, we can hardly move to the top of league tables if these challenges persist. Another strong indicator is the international component of staff and students. Most of our universities have sparse international students or none at all and international staff is also scanty.”
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
