Times Higher Education: UNIZIK would have ranked even higher —VC

The vice chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Professor Charles Okechukwu Esimone, has welcomed the recent ranking of the university by the Times Higher Education which placed UNIZIK at 10th position in Nigeria.

However, Esimone said that the institution would have even fared much better had there been the opportunity to present all basic parameters that were required for the ranking.

The chairman of the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC), Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola, broke the news of the ranking in Abuja when he returned from the summit.

According to Okebukola, at least 12 Nigerian universities, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, have shown remarkable improvement in the world rankings, and were applauded at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit which ended in New York on October 12.

The ranking, as released by the Times Higher Education, he said, had two Nigerian universities in the 401 to 500 band.

Reacting further, Esimone, whose ambition is to achieve number one position in Nigeria and at least 200 position for UNIZIK in the world, said in an interview that the strike by members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) affected UNIZIK’S ranking because basic parameters for the exercise were not completed.

He said: “We didn’t reach the optimum. We would have been about sixth or seventh position in the ranking because I was doing what is required strategically with the supply of the information.

“What we achieved was just a work of faith. The basic parameters, about four of them, were not completed, including the data about students’ distribution.

“The strike did not allow the staff to provide the needed data. We thank God all the same; about four parameters would have been put in place to showcase what we have done,” Esimone said.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the NURAC was set up by the executive secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, to mobilise the Nigerian universities and catalyse their participation in all the global ranking schemes.