Nigerian universities bag ludicrous ranks in world rankings of universities

Transcription

1 Universal Journal of Education and General Studies (ISSN: ) Vol. 2(9) pp , September, 2013 Available online Copyright 2013 Transnational Research Journals Full Length Research Paper Nigerian universities bag ludicrous ranks in world rankings of universities Peter James Kpolovie 1 and Isaac Esezi Obilor 2 1 The Director; Academic Planning, Research and Control Unit; Office of the Vice-Chancellor; University of Port Harcourt 2 Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt Accepted 26 September, 2013 This research adopted documentary analysis design to ascertain the relative position of Nigerian universities in world rankings of universities. Though as the major agency for both personal and national development, university education is expected to be the main driver in the realization of the national goals of Nigeria; the country has continued to pay preposterous attention to it. Consequently, compared to other universities as shown in the various objective rankings of universities in the globe, Nigerian universities are nowhere as they bagged highly ludicrous ranks. No Nigerian university qualified to make the top best 3000 universities as ranked by Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings, and Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Even the very best university in Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University, as ranked by the liberal Ranking Web of Universities in 2013, did not qualify to be among the top 1100 best universities in the world. The almighty University of Ibadan is ranked 2,109 th ; the much talked about American University in Nigeria bagged 6,367 th position; the unique University of Port Harcourt is ranked 7326 th ; and as much as 101 of the 125 universities in Nigeria do not qualify to even fall within 10,000 universities in the world. In Africa alone, Nigerian universities are trailing far behind. Keywords: Ludicrous ranks; World rankings of universities; Nigerian universities; Teaching profession; fate of Nigerian universities, Nigerian flag. INTRODUCTION The history of Nigerian education dates close to her independence because of the realization by the early nationalists that the country could not develop without a proper grounding in a national education system that can guarantee the production of the desired high quality workforce needed for economic and social development. The visionary nationalists recognized that Nigeria needed indigenous education factories for the production of authentic made-in-nigeria graduates, who would be catalysts for national development. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of Nigeria and one of the nationalists, as a student in the United States, saw at first-hand how much transformation and development that good education could bring to individuals and their *Corresponding author drkpolovie@yahoo.com or peter.kpolovie@uniport.edu.ng ; Tel: communities. He vowed, following his characteristically qualitative education at Fisk University, Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania, that he would work towards the establishment of a highly qualitative institution of higher learning on his return to Nigeria. This vision led to the establishment of the University of Nigeria on 7 th October The University of Nigeria was the first full-fledged indigenous and first autonomous university in Nigeria, modeled upon the American educational system. It is the first land-grant university in Africa and one of the five elite universities in the country. Since its establishment in 1960, developments in the University of Nigeria have paralleled the history of Nigeria in significant ways characterized by ups and downs, sometimes more downs than ups. But in spite of it all, the University has remained ever hopeful and stayed focused with its eyes on the prize of the ultimate target of achieving genuine and sustainable development through the power of applied

2 304. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. knowledge and education to serve desired purpose. It needs to be emphasized that right from its conception, the University was meant to be relevant and responsive to the needs of Nigeria s development. As it was for the University of Nigeria so it was for the other early universities in Nigeria. But all that has since become history. In the early years, the Nigerian university system was highly regarded both at home and abroad. Its products were greatly valued and accorded enviable status among their counterparts worldwide (Taiwo, 1985). Views from the system were taken with all seriousness. In effect, the nation used to look up to the university system to show the way and direction to follow. However, in recent years, this position has become altered. The confidence of the public has waned greatly. The quality of graduates from the universities has continued to be questioned by all stakeholders, particularly industries and employers who have to resort to spending lots of fortune to re-train the products of these universities. The major factors responsible for this unhealthy trend are attributed to poor funding (Kpolovie and Obilor, 2013), decadent infrastructure, unprecedented number of strikes (Kpolovie, 2012), brain drain, among others. This presupposes that Nigerian Universities have been affected from all fronts. There is no doubt that its rich culture and ethics have equally been negatively affected. There is no doubt that the low rating of Nigerian Universities is a product of the escalating rot in the system. In an atmosphere of brain drain, where both teachers and students are moving out in droves to teach and study in foreign countries, because of the nation s poor learning environment, Nigerian Universities cannot rank high among its peers in the world. It is true that since the inception of the Fourth Republic in May 1999, there has been a fair improvement in the funding of the Federal Government to the education sector, which when compared to the UNESCO (2002) minimum standard of 26% of total annual budget, is nothing to write home about. It is pertinent to note that despite this, what is made available is grossly inadequate to scratch the numerous needs of the Universities. At present, the Nigerian education environment and the outlook for education in Nigeria are bedeviled with many problems, some of which appear intractable and are like recurring decimals poor funding, low quality, corruption, brain drain, false value system, teacher abuse, and so on. For the Universities to break even and forge ahead to accomplish their mission of producing highly qualified manpower to manage both the national and international economies of the 21 st century, a critical review of the situation is most desirable. There is an urgent need for proper and comprehensive evaluation and utilitarian reformation of all Nigerian Universities (Kpolovie and Ololube, 2013), the result of which should determine what each university requires in order to raise its level to acceptable standards. In spite of the glaring weaknesses of universities in Nigeria, each of them tends to be claiming superiority over others in line with the big fish in small pond syndrome that When someone is the most skilled at an activity out of a relatively small or otherwise novice group of individuals in regards to said activity. Often used to denote that the big fish is not as skilled as those inside of the small pond would make it appear (Legs, 2010). METHOD This investigation employed documentary analysis research design that guarantees authenticity and accuracy to ascertain the ranks of Nigerian universities in the world as objectively ranked by university ranking bodies. Documental analysis in the 21 st century, is a research design that allows for gathering of both secondary and primary data qualitatively and quantitatively from the World Wide Web through internal and external criticisms for authenticity, accuracy, validity and reliability of the online data source (Kpolovie, 2010). The universally valid and reliable online ranking bodies for universities that are used in this investigation are the: 1. Ranking Web of Universities (Webomtrics); 2. Academic Ranking of World Universities; 3. QS World University Rankings; 4. Thime Higer Education World University Rankings; and 5. 4International Colleges and Universities. Each of these ranking bodies uses WebCrawler, Ranking-engine, and inbuilt statistical technique to gather and analyze specific indicators of generally acceptable quality, merit and worth of each university world-over; and quantitatively compares all the universities without bias; and validly and reliably orders the institutions from the best (assigned 1 or 1 st ) to the worst. Thus, with a lower number or rank for a university; the university is better in the relative universal position of world universities. This investigation examined the relative position of Nigerian universities in the world as revealed by each of these five renowned ranking bodies. Authentication of the ranks can easily be done by anybody via the relevant links and websites provided in the results or cited in the references. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS The results indicating ranks of Nigerian universities, where they qualify to be listed, are tabulated for each of

3 Kpolovie and Obilor 305 the ranking bodies, preceded by a brief elucidation of the modus operandi of the ranking body. Webometrics The recent ranking by Ranking Web of Universities or Webometrics in 2012 manifested the ludicrous ranks of Nigerian universities, the ivory towers in the country, as none of them was among the first 1,600 in the world. Even in Africa alone, the report showed that only three Nigerian universities made the list of the first 100 tertiary institutions (Ranking Web of Universities, 2013). They included the University of Benin, which was ranked first in the country but came a distant 1,639 in the world and 18 th in Africa, followed by the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, which came second in the country and 2,266 in the world. The nation s premier university, the University of Ibadan, reputed for many firsts in the past was third in the country and 53 rd in Africa. Other universities that received absurd ranks from the ranking institution despite being seen as the cream of the Nigerian university system and well sought-after by candidates, included the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Lagos. They were respectively ranked 3,228; 3,263 and 3,486 in the world. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) was ranked 6,576 in the world in the ranking where the small West African country, Mauritius produced the first in Africa, the Mauritius Institute of Education; while three South African universities, the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Cairo were among the best five in the Africa. The report recognized Auchi Polytechnic as the best polytechnic in the country although it came 254 in Africa. Polytechnics, by the way, have continued to attract little interest from Nigerians with the discrimination between degree and Higher National Diploma (HND) holders being largely blamed for the development. The Ranking Web of Universities or Webometrics is the largest academic ranking of Higher Education Institutions. Since 2004 and every six months an independent, objective, free, open scientific exercise is performed by the Cybermetrics Lab (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) for providing reliable, multidimensional, updated and useful information about the performance of universities from all over the world based on their web presence and impact. The aim of the Ranking is to promote academic web presence, supporting the Open Access Initiatives for increasing significantly the transfer of scientific and cultural knowledge generated by the universities to the whole Society. In order to achieve this objective, the publication of rankings is one of the most powerful and successful tools for starting and consolidating the processes of change in the academia, increasing the scholars commitment and setting up badly needed long term strategies. Webometrics focuses its rankings on the web presence of the institutions, especially electronic materials which accurately reflect their academic excellence, the quality of learning, academic prestige as well as non-academic variables. The ranking, which is done regularly by Webometrics, is purely web-based and puts into consideration, research results, size, visibility, quality of files and the number of scholars and their electronic publications which can be accessed on the Internet. It covers the activities of professors and researchers, including their formal scholarly publications such as e- journals and repositories, which must maintain high standards of quality and peer review processes. Webometrics is continuously researching for improving the ranking, changing or evolving the indicators and the weighting model to provide a better classification. Webometrics uses link analysis for quality evaluation as it is a far more powerful tool than citation analysis or global surveys. Webometrics intends to motivate both institutions and scholars to have a web presence that reflect accurately their activities. Webometrics uses an a-priori scientific model for building the composite indicators. The current composite indicators are built as follows: Visibility (50%) - impact; Activity (50%) - presence, openness, and excellence. There is no Nigerian university to fly the flag of the country among the topmost best 1100 universities in the world as ranked by liberal Webometrics. Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University to rank universities globally (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2007). The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually. Since 2009, the rankings have been published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. ARWU is the first global ranking of universities to be published (JGU, 2012). Originally, the purpose of ARWU was to benchmark the performance of top Chinese universities but it is now used as a reference for universities worldwide in international academic standings. The Academic Ranking of World Universities is regarded to be one of the three most influential and widely observed international university rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Zirulnick, 2010). Its consistent and objective methodology is greatly commended when compared with other rankings. However, it has also been criticized for its heavier focus on the natural sciences over the social sciences or humanities, and on research over the quality of instruction (Samarasekera and Amrhein, 2010).

4 306. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. The ranking compares 1200 higher education institutions worldwide according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10 percent), staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20 percent), highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20 percent), articles published in the journals Nature and Science (20 percent), the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index (20 percent) and the per capita academic performance (on the indicators above) of an institution (10 percent). The methodology is set out in an academic article by its originators, N.C. Liu and Y. Cheng. The methodology used by the Shanghai Rankings is entirely academic and research oriented (Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, 2012; Kpolovie and Obilor, 2013a). A 2007 paper published in the journal Scientometrics found that the results from the Shanghai rankings could not be reproduced from raw data using the method described by Liu and Cheng (Florian, 2007). In a report from April 2009, J-C. Billaut, D. Bouyssou and Ph. Vincke analyze how the ARWU works, using their insights as specialists of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Their main conclusions are that the criteria used are not relevant; that the aggregation methodology has a number of major problems; and that insufficient attention has been paid to fundamental choices of criteria. The ARWU researchers themselves, N.C Liu and Y Cheng (Zirulnick, 2010), think that the quality of universities cannot be precisely measured by mere numbers and any ranking must be controversial. They suggest that university and college rankings should be used with caution and their methodologies must be understood clearly before reporting or using the results. Others have pointed out, the ARWU is known for "relying solely on research indicators", and "the ranking is heavily weighted toward institutions whose faculty or alumni have won Nobel Prizes": it does not measure "the quality of teaching or the quality of humanities" (Samarasekera and Amrhein, 2010). The Table 2 below contains the overall rankings as ordinal numbers (i.e., 1 is best, 2 is second best, etc.) from 2003 to 2012 for all universities that ranked in the top 100 in one of the years tabulated. The ranking is omitted for years in which the school did not land within the top 100. Note the full ranking contains over 500 universities. If a university is not listed in this table, it did not rank in the top 100 in any of the years tabulated. Harvard University has been ranked first in the world every year since ARWU was first published in Stanford University has maintained the second best position throughout the years except for two years that it ranked third. The Nigerian flag is conspicuously missing from the list because no university in the country qualified to be in the midst of the top ranked universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. QS World University Rankings The QS World University Rankings are annual university rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) which provides overall rankings as well as ranking for individual subjects. QS also publishes additional regional rankings, the QS Asian University Rankings and the QS Latin American University Rankings, both of which are independent of and different from the major world rankings due to differences in the criteria and weightings used to generate them (Asian University Rankings, (2013). The publisher originally released its rankings in publication with Times Higher Education from 2004 to 2009 as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, but the two ended their collaboration in The QS assumed sole publication of the pre-existing methodology, while Times Higher Education created a new one with Thomson Reuters, published as Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The QS World University Rankings is regarded as one of the three most influential and widely observed international university rankings, along with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (Samarasekera all Amrhein, 2010). QS designed its rankings to look at a broad range of university activities: Academic Peer Review (40%), Faculty Student Ratio (20%), Citations per Faculty (20%), Recruiter Review (10%), and International Orientation (10%). QS collects data from universities directly, from their web sites and publications, and from national bodies such as education ministries and the National Center for Education Statistics in the US and the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK. The data are aggregated into columns according to its Z score, an indicator of how far removed any institution is from the average. Universities are classified by size, defined by the size of the student body; comprehensive or specialist status, defined by the range of faculty areas in which programs are offered; and research activity, defined by the number of papers published in a five-year period. QS published rankings of over 700 top universities around the world, the first 50 are listed below for 2010, 2011, and 2012.: The flag of Nigeria does not qualify to fly as none of her universities is among the top ranked universities by the QS World University Rankings. Times Higher Education World University Rankings The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (or THE World University Rankings) are annual world university rankings published by the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE) with data supplied by

5 Kpolovie and Obilor 307 Table 1. Top 50 World Universities in the July 2011 Ranking by the Ranking Web of Universities World Rank Name Country SSize Visibility Rich Scholar 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States Harvard University United States Stanford University United States Cornell University United States University of California, Berkeley United States University of Michigan United States University of Wisconsin Madison United States University of Washington United States University of Minnesota United States University of Pennsylvania United States University of Texas at Austin United States Columbia University United States California Institute of Technology United States University of California, Los Angeles United States Johns Hopkins University United States University of Cambridge United Kingdom University of Maryland United States University of Florida United States University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States Texas A&M University United States Carnegie Mellon University United States Michigan State University United States Purdue University United States National Taiwan University Republic China of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States Pennsylvania State University United States University of Oxford United Kingdom Yale University United States University of Chicago United States New York University United States Rutgers University United States University of Toronto Canada University of British Columbia Canada University of Tokyo Japan University of Pittsburgh United States University of California, San Diego United States ???????????? 38 University of Arizona United States Princeton University United States University of Southern California United States University of Virginia United States Simon Fraser University Canada

6 308. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table 1. Continuation 43 University of São Paulo Brazil University of Southampton United Kingdom University of California, Davis United States University College London United Kingdom North Carolina State University United States Georgia Institute of Technology United States National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexico Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University United States Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/webometrics_ranking_of_world_universities Thomson Reuters that provides citation database information. They include both the overall and the subject rankings. Moreover, the additional World Reputation Rankings which are independent of the main rankings have also been released starting from The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are regarded to be one of the three most influential and widely observed international university rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) (Zirulnick, 2010). Robust, transparent and sophisticated (2010) clarified that: The inaugural methodology is 13 separate indicators grouped under five categories: Teaching (30 percent of final score), research (30 percent), citations (research impact) (worth 32.5 percent), international mix (5 percent), industry income (2.5 percent). The number of indicators is up from the Times-QS rankings published between 2004 and 2009, which used six indicators. A draft of the methodology was released on 3 June The draft stated that 13 indicators would first be used that this could rise to 16 in future rankings, and laid out the categories of indicators as research indicators (55 percent), institutional indicators (25 percent), economic activity/innovation (10 percent), and international diversity (10 percent) (Phil., 2010). The names of the categories and the weighting of each was modified in the final methodology, released on 16 September The Times Higher Education billed the methodology as "robust, transparent and sophisticated," stating that the final methodology was selected after considering 10 months of "detailed consultation with leading experts in global higher education," 250 pages of feedback from "50 senior figures across every continent" and 300 postings on its website. The overall ranking score was calculated by making Z-scores all datasets to standardize different data types on a common scale to better make comparisons among data (Robust, transparent and sophisticated, 2010). Ross Williams of the Melbourne Institute, commenting on the draft, stated that the proposed methodology would favour more focused "science-based institutions with relatively few undergraduates" at the expense of institutions with more comprehensive programmes and undergraduates, but added that the indicators were "academically robust" overall and that the use of scaled measures would reward productivity rather than overall influence. The Times Higher Education Rankings give much importance to citations. This could undermine universities that do not use English as their primary language. Citations and publications in a language different from English are harder to come across (Rauhvargers, 2011). A second important disadvantage for universities of non Anglo-Saxon tradition is that within the disciplines of social sciences and humanities the main tool for publications are books which are not or only rarely covered by citations records. Times Higher Education which is the World University Rankings that is powered by Thomson Reuters can best be described as the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions - teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments (Times Higher Education, 2013). A total of 400 universities were ranked of which no single university in Nigeria qualified to be included. For , , and , the topmost 50 universities are presented here. The other 350 top universities in the world can be seen online from Times Higher Education s Website at: There is not a single university to fly the Nigerian flag among the top ranked universities by Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

7 Kpolovie and Obilor 309 Table 2. Top 100 World Universities by ARWU University Aarhus University Arizona State University Australian National University Boston University Brown University California Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University Columbia University Cornell University Duke University École normale supérieure - Paris Emory University Free University of Berlin Goethe University Frankfurt 100 Harvard University Hebrew University of Jerusalem Humboldt University of Berlin Imperial College London Indiana University - Bloomington Johns Hopkins University Karolinska Institutet King's College London Kyoto University Lund University Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGill University McMaster University Michigan State University Moscow State University Nagoya University New York University North Carolina State University 99 Northwestern University Ohio State University Osaka University Pennsylvania State University Princeton University

8 310. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table 2 continuation Purdue University Rice University Rockefeller University Rutgers University Stanford University Stockholm University ETH Zurich Technical University of Munich Technion Israel Institute of Technology 78 Texas A&M University Tohoku University Tokyo Institute of Technology Tufts University University of Arizona University of Basel University of Birmingham University of Bonn University of Bristol University of British Columbia University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Riverside 88 University of California, San Diego University of California, San Francisco University of California, Santa Barbara University of Cambridge University of Chicago University College London University of Colorado University of Copenhagen University of Edinburgh University of Florida University of Freiburg University of Geneva University of Ghent University of Göttingen University of Groningen 84 University of Heidelberg University of Helsinki University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

9 Kpolovie and Obilor 311 Table 2 continuation University of Illinois at Chicago 96 University of Iowa University of Leiden University of Manchester University of Maryland, College Park University of Melbourne University of Michigan, Ann Arbor University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Munich University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Nottingham University of Oslo University of Oxford Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University University of Paris-Sud University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Queensland Sapienza University of Rome University of Rochester University of Sheffield University of Southern California University of Strasbourg University of Sydney University of Texas at Austin University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas University of Tokyo University of Toronto University of Utah Utrecht University University of Vienna University of Virginia University of Washington University of Western Australia 96 University of Wisconsin Madison University of Zurich Uppsala University Vanderbilt University Washington University in St. Louis Weizmann Institute of Science 93 Yale University Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/academic_ranking_of_world_universities

10 312. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table 3. QS World University Rankings Top [18] 2011 [19] 2010 [20] Institute Region Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States University of Cambridge United Kingdom Harvard University United States University College London United Kingdom University of Oxford United Kingdom Imperial College London United Kingdom Yale University United States University of Chicago United States Princeton University United States California Institute of Technology United States Columbia University United States University of Pennsylvania United States Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) Switzerland Cornell University United States Stanford University United States Johns Hopkins University United States University of Michigan United States McGill University Canada University of Toronto Canada Duke University United States University of Edinburgh United Kingdom University of California, Berkeley United States The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Australian National University Australia National University of Singapore Singapore King's College London United Kingdom Northwestern University United States University of Bristol United Kingdom Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland The University of Tokyo Japan University of California, Los Angeles United States The University of Manchester United Kingdom The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong Ecole normale supérieure France

11 Kpolovie and Obilor 313 Table 3 Continuation Kyoto University Japan The University of Melbourne Australia Seoul National University South Korea University of Wisconsin-Madison United States The University of Sydney Australia The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Ecole Polytechnique France Brown University United States New York University United States Peking University China University of British Columbia Canada The University of Queensland Australia Nanyang Technological University Singapore Tsinghua University China Carnegie Mellon University United States Osaka University Japan Source: 4International Colleges and Universities 4International Colleges and Universities (4icu.org) is an international higher education search engine and directory reviewing accredited Universities and Colleges in the world. 4icu.org includes 11,160 Colleges and Universities, ranked by web popularity, in 200 countries. Being a non-paid directory, 4icu.org is free of charge to both visitors and organizations. No registration is also required. The 4icu.org directory includes worldwide higher education organisations which satisfy the following requirements: are officially recognized, licensed or accredited by national or regional bodies such as ministries of education and/or recognized higher education accrediting organizations; are officially entitled to grant four-year undergraduate degrees and/or postgraduate degrees; provide traditional face-to-face learning facilities, programs and courses. The 4icu.org directory currently does not include: two-year degree granting institutions such as Community Colleges, Vocational Colleges, Training Colleges etc.; distance learning only organizations; other higher education organizations that do not satisfy the above requirements. To ensure the quality of the directory listing, 4icu.org does not participate in link exchanges or include affiliate resources within the directory. All University and College profiles are included and updated free of charge. The current ranking is based upon an algorithm including five unbiased and independent web metrics extracted from three different search engines: Google Page Rank Alexa Traffic Rank Majestic Seo Referring Domains Majestic Seo Citation Flow Majestic Seo Trust Flow Web metrics data are collected on the same day to minimize temporal fluctuations and maximize comparability. A pre-computational filter is adopted to detect outliers in the raw data. Further investigation and a review of Alexa Traffic Rank data is carried out for universities adopting a subdomain (highly not recommended) as their official institutional home page. The aim of this website is to provide an approximate popularity ranking of world Universities and Colleges based upon the popularity of their websites. This is intended to help international students and academic staff to understand how popular a specific University/College is in a foreign country. The 4icu.org University Web Ranking is not an academic ranking organization and should not be adopted as the main criteria for selecting a higher education organization

12 314. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table 4. Times Higher Education World University Rankings Top [26] [27] [28] Institute Region California Institute of Technology United States University of Oxford United Kingdom Stanford University United States Harvard University United States Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States Princeton University United States University of Cambridge United Kingdom Imperial College London United Kingdom University of California, Berkeley United States University of Chicago United States Yale University United States Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) Switzerland University of California, Los Angeles United States Columbia University United States University of Pennsylvania United States Johns Hopkins University United States University College London United Kingdom Cornell University United States Northwestern University United States University of Michigan United States University of Toronto Canada Carnegie Mellon University United States Duke University United States University of Washington United States University of Texas at Austin United States Georgia Institute of Technology United States University of Tokyo Japan University of Melbourne Australia National University of Singapore Singapore University of British Columbia Canada University of Wisconsin-Madison United States University of Edinburgh United Kingdom University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States McGill University Canada The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong

13 Kpolovie and Obilor 315 Table 4 Continuation University of California, Santa Barbara United States Australian National University Australia University of California, San Diego United States London School of Economics and Political Science Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) United Kingdom Switzerland New York University United States University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States Karolinska Institute Sweden University of California, Davis United States Washington University in St Louis United States Peking University China University of Minnesota United States Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Germany University of Manchester United Kingdom Pohang University of Science and Technology South Korea Source: where to study. 4International Colleges and Universities (2013) ranked universities in Africa in the year 2012 as follows. Even the very best of universities in Nigerian, the self-acclaimed Giant of Africa, are trailing far behind universities in most other African countries. The 4International Colleges and Universities released the performance of Nigerian Universities in Africa for 2011/2012. University of Lagos (UNILAG) was ranked best in the country, finishing 16 th in Africa. It will be recalled that in the 2010/2011, University of Lagos ranked 58 th while the Nigerian best was the University of Ilorin, which ranked 20 th. This year, University of Ilorin emerged second in Nigeria and 30 th in Africa trailing University of Zambia and University of Zimbabwe. University of Ibadan, third in Nigeria, was 40 th in Africa while the Obafemi Awolowo University, fourth in Nigeria ranked, 42 nd in Africa and the University of Benin was fifth in Nigeria but finished 45 th in Africa. Overall, six Nigerian Universities were ranked among the best 100 in Africa but they trailed behind Universities in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Morocco and Sudan. All the Universities in the top six were from South Africa, with an additional one in the 8 th position, making the best 10, alongside three Universities in Egypt (NIGERIAN TRINBUNE, 2012) Another international online Universities and Colleges ranking directory (4icu.org) published its current (2012) top 100 Universities and Colleges in Africa and no Nigerian university made the top 10 on the list (Table 5). Universities in South Africa, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Ghana, Morocco and even Sudan led favourably against six Nigerian Universities that appeared on the directory s ranking. The six Nigerian Universities that appeared on the list are the University of Ibadan at 32 nd position, University of Ilorin 34 th, University of Benin 40 th, Obafemi Awolowo University Ife 44 th, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria 62 nd and University of Jos 70 th position. 4International Colleges and Universities (4icu.org) is an international higher education search engine and directory reviewing accredited Colleges and Universities around the world. Its directory includes worldwide higher education organizations which are officially recognized, licensed or accredited by national or regional bodies such as ministries of education and/or recognized higher education accrediting organizations; officially entitled to grant four-year undergraduate degrees and/or postgraduate degrees; provide traditional face-to-face learning facilities, programmes and courses; and have a working official website. Their ranking is based on an algorithm including three unbiased and independent web metrics extracted from three different search engines: Google Page Rank, Yahoo Traffic Links and Alexa Traffic Rank. This web ranking portal is one of the credible websites that rank universities and colleges across the globe. In 2013, eight Nigerian Universities featured on the 2013 top 100 African university list with the first of them,

14 316. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table Ranking of 100 Top Universities in Africa 1 University of Cape Town South Africa 2 Cairo University Egypt 3 University of Pretoria South Africa 4 Universiteit Stellenbosch South Africa 5 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa 6 University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa 7 University of South Africa South Africa 8 The American University in Cairo Egypt 9 Mansoura University Egypt 10 University of the Western Cape South Africa 11 Makerere University Uganda 12 Rhodes University South Africa 13 University of Johannesburg South Africa 14 University of Nairobi Kenya 15 University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania 16 Cape Peninsula University of Technology South Africa 17 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University South Africa 18 University of Botswana Botswana 19 University of Ghana Ghana 20 Helwan University Egypt 21 Ain Shams University Egypt 22 Université Cadi Ayyad Morocco 23 University of Khartoum Sudan 24 Tshwane University of Technology South Africa 25 Al Akhawayn University Morocco 26 Addis Ababa University Ethiopia 27 Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Mozambique 28 Université Cheikh Anta Diop Senegal 29 Mogadishu University Somalia 30 University of Namibia Namibia 31 University of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 32 University of Ibadan Nigeria (1) 33 Polytechnic of Namibia Namibia 34 University of Ilorin Nigeria (2) 35 Zagazig University Egypt 36 Assiut University Egypt 37 North-West University South Africa Source: 38 Université Mentouri de Constantine Algeria 39 Presbyterian University College Ghana 40 University of Benin Nigeria (3) 41 Universiteit van die Vrystaat South Africa 42 Kenyatta University Kenya 43 Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediène Algeria 44 Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria (4) 45 Université de la Reunion Reunion 46 Sudan University for Science and Technology Sudan 47 Strathmore University Kenya 48 The Hubert Kairuki Memorial University Tanzania 49 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Ghana 50 United States International University Kenya 51 Université Abdelmalek Essadi Morocco 52 Tanta University Egypt 53 The German University in Cairo Egypt 54 Université de Batna Algeria 55 Université d'alger Algeria 56 South Valley University Egypt 57 Menoufia University Egypt 58 Al Azhar University Egypt 59 Université Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen Algeria 60 University of Mauritius Mauritius 61 Central University of Technology South Africa 62 Ahmadu Bello University Nig. (5) 63 Université Hassan II - Aïn Chock Morocco 64 Université Hassan II - Mohammedia Morocco 65 Université Mohammed V - Souissi Morocco 66 Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Kenya 67 Durban University of Technology South Africa 68 Université Ibn Tofail Morocco 69 University of Zambia Zambia 70 University of Jos Nigeria (6) 71 Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis Mostaganem Algeria 72 Université M'hamed Bouguerra de Boumerdes Algeria 73 Nile University Egypt 74 University of Education, Winneba Ghana 75 International University of Africa Sudan 76 University of Fort Hare South Africa 77 Université Mohammed V - Agdal Morocco 78 University of Limpopo South Africa 79 Uganda Christian University Uganda 80 Vaal University of Technology South Africa 81 Université Hassan Ier Morocco 82 Université Saad Dahlab Blida Algeria 83 Walter Sisulu University South Africa 84 Moi University Kenya 85 Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah Fés Morocco 86 MISR University for Sience and Technology Egypt 87 Université d'antananarivo Madagascar 88 October 6 University Egypt 89 École Nationale Polytechnique Algeria 90 Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Mohamed Boudiaf d'oran Algeria 91 Egerton University Kenya 92 Université Mouloud Maameri de Tizi Ouzou Algeria 93 Université Djillali Liabes Algeria 94 University of Cape Coast Ghana 95 Université d'oran Algeria 96 University of Garyounis Libya 97 National University of Rwanda Rwanda 98 Université de Ouagadougou Burkina Faso 99 University of Zulu land South Africa 100 Kigali Institute of Science and Technology Rwanda

15 Kpolovie and Obilor 317 University of Ibadan coming 23 rd on the list according to ranking by 4icu.org. Others that featured on the list are Obafemi Awolowo University (31 st ), University of Lagos (34 th ), Ahmadu Bello University (54 th ), University of Ilorin (58 th ), University of Benin (71 st ), University of Jos (84 th ) and University of Maiduguri (96 th ). The list was dominated by South African (SA) and Egyptian Universities, with SA occupying the top five positions. However, no Nigerian University made the list of the top 400 in the world according to rankings by the Times Higher Education, THE, for The only African Universities on the list are based in South Africa. According to the report, the University of Cape Town which ranks 113 in the world was number one in Africa. South African universities also came in second, third and fourth on the African scene with the universities of Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and Kwazulu-Natal, respectively scoring 226, 251 and 351 overall. The Times Higher Education ranked the California Institute of Technology, United States, first with overall score of 95.5, while University of Oxford, United Kingdom and Stanford University in United States shared second place. American universities dominate the Times Higher Education global rankings for , occupying seven of the top 10 spots, but Asian institutions are on the rise as reflected in the report. The ranking shows the California Institute of Technology retained number one position, but Harvard University dropped from the second position it shared with Stanford last year, to number four as the University of Oxford and Stanford shared second place. The top 10 group is relatively the same as last year, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. The report employed 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments. The methodology offers a year-on-year comparison based on true performance rather than methodological change. The 13 performance indicators are grouped into five areas: teaching the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score); research volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent); citations research influence (worth 30 per cent); industry income innovation (worth 2.5 per cent); international outlook staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent). Ranking Web of Universities Ranking of Nigerian Universities among World Universities Ranking Web of Universities (2013) showed that Nigerian universities have highly ludicrous ranks in the ranking of universities in the world. The indicators used by Ranking Web of Universities (2013) are simply presence, impact, openness, and excellence. For instance, the best ranked university in Nigeria, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is ranked 1113 rd in the world. The almighty University of Ibadan is ranked 2,109 th in the world. The much talked about American University in Nigeria bags 6,367 th position. The unique University of Port Harcourt that has the 16 th position in Nigeria, is ranked 7326 th in the world. The last, the 125 th University in Nigeria, the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuoumeni, occupies the 21,248 th position among world universities. Out of the 125 universities in Nigeria, as much as 101 did not qualify to be among topmost 10,000 universities in the world. It should quickly be noted that with other world university ranking engines or bodies that use more stringent indicators like the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 4International Colleges and Universities, and the U.S. News and World Reports; Nigerian universities do not make the list of even the topmost 3000 universities in the world (Kpolovie and Obilor, 2013; U.S. News and World Reports, 2012). See Table 6 below for other details on the position of Nigerian Universities in the Ranking Web of Universities (2013). Recent reports as shown in Kpolovie and Obilor (2013) revealed that countries investing more on education always performed better in the rankings. For instance Annual Budgetary Allocations of 20 World Bank Sampled Countries to Education (World Bank 2012) showed that the best ranked universities in the countries with higher spending are ranked ahead of the best ranked Nigerian university. Hence, the decision by the Federal Government to spend N400 billion as part of efforts to revive the universities is a welcome development. If wellchanneled to meet the needs of the institutions, it will improve the quality of learning and the global rating of our universities in addition to ensuring regular and uninterrupted academic sessions. DISCUSSION Nigeria was a country that produced world-class university graduates that could most favorably compete with their counterparts around the world; and hard work was their watchword. But today, very many of what the nation produces are the worst sets of uneducated tertiary graduates that cannot structure a simple sentence. Prior to the Nigerian oil industry evolution in the late 1960s, the Nigerian economy was wholly-funded by revenue generated from cash crops such as groundnut, cocoa and palm oil, all produced from the northern, western and eastern parts of Nigeria respectively. Then, the fruits of hard work were imbedded in the heart and mind of every student because they saw how hardworking their parents were on the farms and moral education was part of family responsibilities. Today, students are unable to compete in

16 318. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table Webometrics World Ranking of Nigerian Universities Nigerian Rank World Rank University Presence Rank Impact Rank Openness Rank Excellence Rank Obafemi Awolowo University Auchi Polytechnic University of Ibadan University of Lagos University of Nigeria University of Agriculture Abeokuta Yaba College of Technology University of Benin Ahmadu Bello University University of Ilorin Joseph Ayo Babalola University American University of Nigeria Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti Ekiti State Federal University of Technology Akure University of Jos University of Port Harcourt Covenant University Ota National Open University of Nigeria Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Federal University of Technology Owerri University of Uyo University of Calabar Lagos Business School Pan African University Federal University of Technology Minna Nnamdi Azikiwe University Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun University of Maiduguri Kwara State University Babcock University Adekunle Ajasin University Lagos State University Redeemer's University Federal University Oye Ekiti Ekiti State Rivers State University of Science & Technology Bayero University Kano Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Caritas University Enugu Bowen University Ebonyi State University Pan African University Lagos Osun State University Benue State University Enugu State University of Science and Technology Lagos State Polytechnic Igbinedion University Okada Crawford University Igbesa Ajayi Crowther University Oyo Bells University of Technology Otta Niger Delta University

17 Kpolovie and Obilor 319 Table 6 continuation Federal University Ndufu Alike Ebonyi State Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai Nasarawa State University Nigerian Turkish Nile University Abuja Caleb University Achievers University Owo Umaru Musa Yar'Adua University (Katsina State University) Lead City University Ibadan Ekiti State University Ado Ekiti (University of Ado Ekiti) Tai Solarin University of Education Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi Baze University Kuchigoro Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola (Federal University of Technology) Veritas University Kaduna State University Ondo State University of Science & Technology Okitipupa University of Mkar Kwara State Polytechnic Ilorin University of Abuja Federal University Otuoke Bayelsa Obong University Renaissance University Enugu Delta State University Nigeria African University of Science & Technology Abuja Landmark University Polytechnic Ibadan Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna Imo State University Owerri Adeleke University Ede Northwest University Kano Akwa Ibom State University of Technology Uyo Federal University Dutse Jigawa State Federal Polytechnic Ilaro Plateau State University Anambra State University of Science & Technology Uli Federal Polytechnic Ede Madonna University Nigeria Federal Polytechnic Offa Fountain University Osogbo National Mathematical Centre Bingham University New Karu Kaduna Polytechnic Federal University Wukari Taraba State University of Calabar Graduate School Adamawa State University Oduduwa University Ipetumodu Osun State Novena University Ogume Benson Idahosa University Federal University Lokoja Kogi State Kebbi State University Kebbi

18 320. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. Table 6 continuation Samuel Adegboyega University Ogwa Kano University of Science and Technology Wudil Crescent University Paul University Awka Anambra State Bukar Abba Ibrahim University Damaturu Federal University Lafia Nasarawa State Tansian University Umunya Federal University Kashere Gombe State Al Hikmah University Ilorin Federal Polytechnic Mubi Cross River State University of Science & Technology Calabar Salem University Lokoja Rhema University Obeama Asa Rivers State Wesley University of Science & Technology Ondo Wellspring University Federal Polytechnic Bauchi Abia State University Uturu Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike Godfrey Okoye University Ugwuomu Nike Enugu State Gregory University Uturu Bauchi State University Gadau Lagos State University College of Medicine Western Delta University Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Rumuoumeni Source: Table 7. Spending on Education and University Ranking of some African Countries Country % GNP Rank of Best University Ghana Kenya Mozambique Nigeria South Africa Tanzania Uganda Sources: Kpolovie and Obilor, (2013). Education funding in Nigeria: Adequacy Inadequacy? Journal of Education in Developing Areas (JEDA). Retrieved September 4, 2013 from 21(1): a healthy academic atmosphere due to the destructive role of the family, government, and the degenerated university community. Regrettably, most parents lack all ingredients to be called fathers and mothers because the family structure has been destroyed (Chikwem, 2012). These so-called parents hardly oversee the growth and development of

19 Kpolovie and Obilor 321 their children, rather they chase after the fruits of the world. Family values and respect are now things of the past. Some parents prefer to buy admission letters for their children rather than encouraging them to properly prepare for their examinations. And for the parents who refuse to engage in these illegal and immoral practices, they are victimized as their children end up staying at home for years until their parents or the students learn how to beat or cheat the system (Chikwem, 2012). Most of these parents always use a famous proverb to justify their unwarranted actions, which goes as follows: "If you can t beat them, then join them". But these parents fail to realize that they are destroying the future of their children and unborn children without consideration of the longterm consequences and implications. Big corporations in Nigeria prefer non-nigerian graduates to Nigerian graduates. The corporations justify their actions based on the fact that, they spend huge millions of Naira in retraining Nigerian graduates to perform their jobs, which were supposed to be learnt at their respective institutions of higher learning. Their contention is that foreign trained graduates are very wellequipped to carry out their respective duties. For example, Shell Nigeria has an intensive one-year programme to improve the technical knowledge of Nigeria-trained graduates before they may be considered for employment into Shell Nigeria. The programme is called "Shell Intensive Training Programme (SITP)" and it is automatically waived for all foreign trained graduates. In addition, the Nigerian government and its agencies prefer to award contracts to foreign companies rather than Nigerian companies. Hitherto, institutions like Yaba College of Technology, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University and University of Nigeria were all real centers of academic excellence. But unfortunately, the Federal Government of Nigeria established a governmental agency called Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to regulate admissions into Nigerian institutions of higher learning. This agency, though created with good intensions, mismanaged the admission processes into institutions of higher learning in Nigeria, introduced fraud and criminalized education in Nigeria, such that some prospective students into the universities and polytechnics simply have to bribe their way into these institutions. The effect is that such students find it extremely difficult to maintain good academic standards. The results are cultism, prostitution, intimidation of lecturers for high grades and other vices, making hard work and academic excellence no longer the yardsticks by which academic successes are measured in Nigeria. Some lecturers also share in the woes of the ranking of the Nigerian universities. Some lecturers refuse to pass students until they buy their prepared lecture notes "handouts" or some other sorts of fraudulent gratification is offered by the students against their will. This situation is so bad that it has become a living nightmare for some female students, including single and married, because the unworthy lecturers would make sure they fail them if sex is not exchanged for passing grades. While some lecturers are converting to part-time politicians and others have decided to join the corporate world, thereby abandoning the noble profession of teaching, the mother of all professions. Coupled with bran-drain issue (mass exodus of good Nigerian scholars to other countries) as a result of poor salary and government s meager funding of universities in Nigeria, the effect is very poor studentlecturer ratio as few lecturers have to teach very many students; giving rise to poor quality education. There is a massive migration of professors into institutions in foreign lands because there are no incentives to advance their profession in Nigeria and the Nigerian government chooses to pay them whatever skimpy stipend that the government feels. These professors are highly-under paid and lack all adequate infrastructures to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently in Nigeria. The good healthy relationship between lecturers and students is no longer present, instead some of the ravenous lecturers take advantage of the students for their own personal gains. Can one completely blame the lecturers in a nation where a primary or secondary school leaver who becomes a Local Government counselor earns much higher than a university professor that created him? RECOMMENDATIONS From its earliest days, the Nigerian Universities had a clear mandate to contribute to national development by being attentive to the problems of their environment. The universities immediate concern was to relate the educational system to the Nigerian environment as it was obvious that no university outside Nigeria can better help to accomplish this; it must be done by universities located within Nigeria and not tied to the apron strings of any foreign institution. It is against this backdrop and the current situation that Nigerian universities have very ludicrous ranking among universities in the world that the following recommendations are made to enable the Nigerian education to become more relevant to our development process in line with the swift global wind of technological and scientific change. The world rankings that show ludicrous ranks for Nigerian universities are indeed true reflections of the realities in Nigerian Universities that have virtually nothing much to offer for attraction of meaningful visibility on the cyber space. It must be stressed here that Nigeria is not an island, having nothing to do with the rest of the world. Since we are part of the global system, the only right thing is to do the good things globally renowned universities are doing and become like them. Complaints will change nothing. Better raking will come for Nigerian

20 322. Univers. J. Edu. Gen. Stud. universities if they put in place the necessary and appropriate parameters of assessment by drastically improving the quality of their programs and products. It has been noted that without a formidable intellectual base, it is not likely that any society would move forward (Anya, 2001). Nigeria needs to very urgently evaluate her university system, using most suitable evaluation models and designs; and totally reform it (Kpolovie, 2012) for Nigerian universities to occupy positions within the topmost 500 universities in the world. The lecturer, the goose that lays the golden eggs and the axe that fetches the wood that warms and cooks for the rich, the poor, the high, and the mighty; must not be allowed to continue to remain outside in the cold (Obilor, 2012). The Federal Government should reverse the trend where one little politician who had several reseats under some university don, earns in one month what the don who created him earns in three years. This is injustice and if allowed to continue will destroy our education system and bring the project, Nigeria, to avoidable ridicule. Dike (2002) noted that the survival of Nigeria as a viable society will depend on the health of her educational institutions, and how well the professors and support staff are treated. The Federal Government should be very proactive. When will the Federal Government ever attend to the demands of trade unions before they go on strike? It is incredibly bad that no public university in Nigeria has ever enjoyed undisrupted academic calendar for the minimum four years that a typical first degree programme lasts (Kpolovie, 2012). The Federal Government often, if not always, pays deaf ears to cries, pleas and demands of the electorate, trade unions, student union governments and others, and only begins negotiations when strikes are on and irreparable damages have been done. Most universities in the country are often shut as a result of nationwide strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Student Union Governments, or some other bodies within the university system, when university rankings are conducted by the global institutions like Webometrics, 4International Colleges and Universities Organisation (4icu.org), Times Higher Education (THE), etc. It must be noted that nobody ever has his hair shaved in his absence. The federal government should live up to her responsibility of running smooth and undisrupted university academic programs. All stakeholders should contribute to the funding of the universities. Very importantly, the budgetary allocations to the education sector in Nigeria must reach and surpass the 26% minimum of total annual budget UNESCO recommendation. It must be emphasized that such funds when appropriated must be timely and adequate released, noting that when the timing is wrong, it creates room for fraud and misappropriation. The roles of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the attendant effects on Nigerian education system must be reviewed to ensure that the board s examinations discretely select only the best-able candidates for admission into the universities. This has become imperative because as long as those who are not qualified happen to form a significant number of candidates who are offered admission, the quality of our education will continue to go from bad to worse. If the rightly qualified candidates are not the ones admitted in universities, a time shall come when lecturers will refuse to go to the classroom but stay at home and allot scores to students for fear of being destroyed by lazy and unqualified students who believe they must pass by all means. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. It must however be stated unequivocally that, all the above recommendations shall be useless and unachievable until the Nigerian government becomes more accountable, corrupt-free, and answerable to the people (Chikwem, 2012). One must not be deceived by the so-called Nigerian leaders who claim to be sympathetic to the needs of the Nigerian educational system because most of them, if not all of them, have their children schooling in foreign institutions where they donate heavily in dollars, pounds and euro to the foreign institutions, without giving a naira to the institutions in their fatherland. It is hoped, and sincerely too, that it is not too late to salvage the Nigerian university educational system now as the present trend demands. CONCLUSION For improved ranking, universities and other higher institutions in the country must enhance access to research results and other academic publications through efficient internet connectivity in addition to improving infrastructure, academic environment and conditions of learning to encourage research. Each of Nigerian university should provide valuable opportunity that offers quick, easy, free, and open access for researchers to share the results of their work. In this regard, companies, corporate bodies and non-governmental organizations must assist in providing research grants and endowment funds to enable our higher institutions offer greater scientific knowledge to a potentially large audience and also to economic, industrial, political and cultural institutions for the advancement of the society. We can no longer continue to pass blames - what we need now is putting all hands on deck and doing the needful. We do not have any other country that can be ours like Nigeria even when we naturalize elsewhere. We must save Nigeria. Sound university education is the answer. REFERENCES Anya AO (2001). "The dreams, vision and myth of Nigerian reality" The Guardian Online, June 19, Retrieved