NUC Dissociates Self From Alleged Nigerian University Ranking

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has dissociated itself from the purported ranking of Nigerian universities making rounds on the Internet.

In a swift statement released by NUC, the commission said that the list did not emanate from the supervisory agency of the nation’s university system

The statement read, “The attention of the NUC has been drawn to some purported lists, making the rounds on the internet, of the ‘Top 100’ and ‘Top 50’ universities in Nigeria, which were alleged to be the outcome of a non-existing ‘annual university rankings’ by the National University Commission.

“It has to be stated, unequivocally, that the lists did not emanate from the NUC. The Commission therefore totally dissociates itself from them.”

The NUC restated that its mandate includes approval of courses and programmes; determination and maintenance of Minimum Academic Standards; monitoring of universities; accreditation of academic programmes and institutions; as well as provision of guidelines and processing of applications for the establishment of private universities.

The NUC added that the first ranking of Nigerian universities done by the agency in 2002 was based on the performance of the universities’ academic programmes in the 1999 and 2000 accreditation exercises.

The 2004 ranking, it stated, was based on percentage of academic programmes of the university with full accreditation status; compliance with carrying capacity; proportion of the academic staff of the university at professorial level; foreign content in workforce and students; and faculty members with outstanding academic achievements.

It stated that the NUC also looked at research output; student completion rate; Ph.D graduate output for the year; stability of university calendar; and student-to-computer ratio.

The results of the exercise, the NUC added, were duly published and that the same would be done for future exercises.