Nigerian universities and the Times Higher Education rankings

BY A’WAHEED MUSA

The Times Higher Education (THE) 2025 World University Rankings have just been released and some institutions in Nigeria have made the list. THE rankings is an annual global ranking of universities, assessing their overall performance across various key areas. The rankings aim to help students, academics, and institutions understand the relative standing of universities worldwide.

THE rankings are based on some performance indicators including teaching (learning environment), research (volume, income, reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (staff, students, research), and industry income (knowledge transfer). These indicators are derived from data provided by universities and external sources like research publications and citation databases, ensuring a robust comparison between institutions.

I’m excited to see Nigerian universities recognised globally. But there’s still a long way to go to compete with the best. A total of 44 Nigerian universities made the 2025 rankings. This figure represents a small fraction of Nigeria’s 274 universities, highlighting the need for improvement in the overall global competitiveness of Nigeria’s higher institutions.

According to the 2025 ranking, the following universities are the top ten universities in Nigeria: Covenant University, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Landmark University, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Bayero University Kano, Federal University of Technology (FUT) Akure, Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, University of Benin, and University of Ilorin.

Covenant University remained the top university in Nigeria. The university, a private institution, has maintained the national top spot for two consecutive years, having ranked first in 2024 and 2025. It remains the only Nigerian university in the top 1000 globally. No new Nigerian universities broke into the global top 1000 in the ranking.

Although Covenant University leads nationally, its global ranking in the league of world-class universities has dropped. To put this in proper perspective, the university was rated among the best 601–800 but it has now fallen to 801–1000 band. No Nigerian university ranked within the top 800 globally in the 2025 ranking.

It is interesting to note that ABU Zaria made its debut on the ranking list in second position in Nigeria. ABU entered the top 2, displacing the University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria’s pioneer university. UI has dipped in its national rating to fourth position in the 2025 ranking. This also translates to a displacement from its global position. UI was ranked globally between 401 and 500 in 2023 and 801 and 1000 in 2024.

Another significant feat is Landmark University occupying the third position. It is indeed a landmark seeing how Landmark University moved from the 34th position in the 2024 rating to the 3rd position in the 2025 ranking. Landmark University has now climbed to the top tier alongside Covenant University, both privately owned by Bishop David Oyedepo.

FUT Minna demonstrated a similar feat by moving from 31st position in 2024 to 8th position in 2025. The University of Ilorin which prides itself as the “Better by Far” university is now the “10th by Far” university. Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), the so-called “Oba Awon University” is not among the top 10. OAU has dipped to 19th place, a further decline from its 14th position of 2024 THE ranking.

While a few other Nigerian universities are now being ranked by THE for the first time, Kwara State University (KWASU) does not appear in the World University Rankings. However, the university is making steady progress in national rankings and sets to break into the global rankings by way of incremental improvement.

Despite the increment in the total number of universities in Nigeria from 264 (at the last ranking period) to 274 (as of August 2024), fewer Nigerian universities ranked in the recent results (i.e., 2025) compared to the last ranking results (i.e., 2024).

While Covenant University maintained its dominance, other major institutions experienced shifts, both up and down, highlighting competitiveness within Nigerian higher education.