Covenant University (CU), a private institution, is listed as Nigeria’s overall best university in THE 2024 Rankings.

THE Rankings, published annually by Times Higher Education, is a comprehensive global ranking of universities.

The higher education intelligence firm has released its 2024 data, capturing 1,907 universities across 108 countries and regions.

It assessed universities based on 18 indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

THE’s 2024 ranking analysed more than 134 million citations across 16.5 million research publications and included survey responses from 68,402 scholars globally.

It collected 411,789 data points from more than 2,673 institutions that submitted data.

On the global scale, the UK’s University of Oxford tops the THE 2024 Rankings for the ninth year in a row.

With this, Oxford’s reign is now the longest in the ranking’s history, beating Harvard’s eight-year stint which ended in 2011.

Stanford University in the US moved up to second place, pushing the UK’s Harvard University down to fourth place.

The UK’s University of Cambridge slipped to fifth place in 2024, after being in joint third place in 2023.

THE’s Global Top-10 Best Universities

1. University of Oxford, UK
2. Stanford University, US
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
4. Harvard University, US
5. University of Cambridge, UK
6. Princeton University, US
7. California Institute of Technology, US
8. Imperial College London, UK
9. University of California, Berkeley US
10. Yale University, US

Nigeria’s highest-ranking institution on the 2024 list is Covenant University (CU) which fell within the 800-1000 global scale alongside the University of Ibadan (UI).

Nigeria’s THE Overall Best Universities

1. Covenant University
2. University of Ibadan
3. Federal University of Technology Akure
4. University of Lagos
5. Bayero University
6. University of Ilorin
7. University of Nigeria, Nsukka
8. Afe Babalola University
9. University of Benin
10. Federal University ofAgriculture, Abeokuta
11. Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
12. Lagos State University
13. Nnamdi Azikiwe University
14. Obafemi Awolowo University
15. University of Port Harcourt
16. Abia State University
17. Akwa Ibom State University
18. Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike
19. Babcock University
20. Baze University
21. Bells University of Technology
22. Benson Idahosa University
23. Delta State University, Abraka
24. Edo State University, Uzairue
25. Edwin Clarke University
26. Elizade University
27. Evangel University, Akaeze
28. Federal University of Kashere
29. Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun
30. Federal University of Technology, Minna
31. Federal University of Technology, Owerri
32. Fountain University
33. Landmark University
34. Nasarawa State University, Keffi
35. Niger Delta University
36. Plateau State University, Bokkos
37. Thomas Adewumi University
38. Veritas University, Abuja
39. Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano

On a national scale, however, Covenant University is listed as Nigeria’s best across teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.

Rankings like THE are used by prospective students, employers, and governments as a benchmark to evaluate universities.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has warned that most Nigerian universities are currently on the verge of collapsing following “unbearable cost of electricity”.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke on Thursday during the opening session of a two-day national conference convened by the union in Abuja, said the electricity bills of some universities run between N200m to N300m monthly.

According to him, upon the huge bills universities only receive N15m monthly from the federal government as running costs for both electricity and other bills.

He lamented that while the universities get N15 million as total running cost, the government is paying each Senator “N21 million a month”.

He said, “What the government gives you to run the system is N15 million, and you get a bill for electricity alone of N300 million. Where is that money coming from? You have to run the laboratories. You have to run the diesel. You have to run the fuel for vehicles.

“But you know what? A government that will give just N15 million for UNILAG to run, will in turn, give one Senator N21 million a month. The government gives a system N15 million, but an individual gets N21 million. That’s where our priority is”.

Gov. Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra, on Thursday, announced free education for students of senior secondary in public schools in the state.

Soludo made the announcement in Awka, while meeting with principals and head teachers in public primary and secondary schools.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on Sept. 21, 2023, the governor announced free and compulsory education from nursery to junior secondary in public schools in line with his Solution Free Education policy.

He noted said that students of senior secondary in public schools would pay N5, 000 only as tuition fee.

Against this backdrop, the governor while meeting with principals and head teachers in public schools stated that from next week, the free education policy would be available to students of senior secondary in public schools.

He said this would further increase children’s access to education and ensure effective development of their personality, talents, mental and physical abilities.

“I want to assure you that even with the resource constraint; our administration will continue to work very hard to deliver on its mandate.

“I’m giving a directive that students in senior classes, who have already paid their N5,000 tuition fees for this term should be refunded,’’ he said.

He reiterated his administration’s dedication to human capital development and promised to continue making strides in this area.

Soludo also said that the government would commence payment of the N70, 000 minimum wage in October.

“We remain committed to investing in our people and this new minimum wage and free education initiative are testaments to our resolve.

“This move is expected to have a significant impact on the lives of workers and students in Anambra, improving their standard of living and access to quality education,’’ he said.

(NAN)