US News & World Report has released its 2020 Best Global Universities rankings – which includes a list of the top 3 Universities in Nigeria.
The overall rankings encompass the top 1,500 institutions spread across 81 countries – up from 75 countries last year – and are the largest and most comprehensive assessment of research universities worldwide, it says.
The rankings put a particular focus on the research output of universities, as well as the reputations tied to that research, both locally and globally.
This includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.
The 13 indicators the group looks at (and their weightings) are:
Global research reputation – 12.5%
Regional research reputation – 12.5%
Number of publications that are among the 10% most cited – 12.5%
Percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited – 10%
Publications – 10%
Normalised citation impact – 10%
Total citations – 7.5%
International collaboration – 5%
Percentage of total publications with international collaboration – 5%
Number of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited in their respective field – 5%
Percentage of total publications that are among the top 1% most highly cited papers – 5%
Books – 2.5%
Conferences – 2.5%
The US has the most universities in the overall ranking with 249 institutes ranked, followed by China (188), the UK (86), Japan (82) and Germany (66).
The universities that make up the top 10 in 2020 are unchanged from the 2019 ranking, with only one real shift. The University of Cambridge, which ranked 7th in 2019 has dropped to 9th position in 2020, pushing Colombia University and Princeton University one place upwards.
Harvard University remains the top-ranked institute in the world.
Top 10 Universities in the world:
These are the Top 10 Universities in the world
1 Harvard University
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3 Stanford University
4 University of California—Berkeley
5 University of Oxford
6 California Institute of Technology
7 Columbia University
8 Princeton University
9 University of Cambridge
10 University of Washington Seattle
Nigerian Universities
Nigerian universities largely slipped down the global rankings in 2020, with only 3 institutes ranked.
The University of Ibadan remains the top university in Nigeria, and 17th best university in Africa.
University of Ibadan is followed by the University of Nigeria, which placed 1393 globally.
The third Nigerian University that made the list was the University of Lagos, but unlike other Universities on the list, no score was attached to the institution.
This is how Nigeria’s universities ranked.
Top Universities in Nigeria according to U.S News:
| University | Africa Rank | Global Rank |
|---|---|---|
| University of Ibadan | 17 | 733 |
| University of Nigeria | 43 | 1393 |
| University of Lagos | – | – |
