The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Professor Charles Okechukwu Esimone has welcomed the recent ranking at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit, New York, which placed UNIZIK at 10th position in Nigeria.
Esimone said the University deserved a far better placing if there had been an opportunity to present all basic parameters that were required for the ranking.
It will be recalled that 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 twelve Nigerian universities with Nnamdi Azikiwe University on the list have shown remarkable improvement in world rankings and were applauded at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit which ended in New York on October 12.
The ranking released by the Times Higher Education, he said has two Nigerian universities in the 401 to 500 band.
Reacting further, Esimone whose ambition is to achieve the number one position in Nigeria and at least 200 positions for UNIZIK in the world said in a dialogue that the strike action by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) played a major role in its lower 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 because I was doing what is required strategically with the supply of information.
“What we achieved was just a work of faith. The basic parameters, about four of them were not completed, including data about student distribution.
“The strike action did not allow the staff to provide the data needed.
” We thank God all the same. About four parameters we would have put in place to showcase what we have done”, Esimone said.
Tribune Online gathered that the NURAC was set up by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed to mobilise Nigerian universities for and catalyse their participation in all global ranking schemes.