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  • ·                Covenant University and the University of Ibadan are the jointly highest ranked universities in Nigeria, both coming 800-1,000, in Times Higher Education’s (THE) largest World University Rankings. 
  • ·                Federal University of Technology Akure and University of Lagos are the second highest ranked universities in the country coming in band 1001-1200. 
  • ·                Nigeria has two universities in the top 1,000 and seven in the top 1,500 in the world. 
  •   The top 10 universities in Nigeria suffered a setback in this year’s World University Rankings. The University of Lagos dropped from 401–500 to 1001–1200 and lost the title of best ranked university in the country (which it held jointly with University of Ibadan last year). The University of Ibadan also dropped significantly from 401–500 last year to band 801–1000.  

In the 20th year of the ranking 1,904 universities – up from 1,799 from last year – from 108 countries and regions are ranked. THE’s World University Rankings 2024 are the most comprehensive, rigorous and balanced global ranking assessing research-intensive universities across 18 performance indicators covering their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation.  

Nigerian universities in THE’s World University Rankings 2024  

Institution Rank 2024  Rank 2023  
Covenant University  801–1000   601–800  
University of Ibadan  801–1000   401–500  
Federal University of Technology Akure  1001–1200   1001–1200  
University of Lagos  1001–1200   401–500  
Bayero University  1201–1500   1001–1200  
University of Ilorin  1201–1500   1201–1500  
University of Nigeria Nsukka  1201–1500   1201–1500  
Afe Babalola University  1501+   NR  
University of Benin  1501+   1201–1500  
Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta  1501+   1501+  
Ladoke Akintola University of Technology  1501+   1501+  
Lagos State University  1501+   NR  
Nnamdi Azikiwe University  1501+   1501+  
Obafemi Awolowo University  1501+   1201–1500  
University of Port Harcourt  1501+   NR 

Times Higher Education 2024 World University Rankings Full List: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2024/world-ranking 

The number of Nigerian universities in the rankings has grown considerably over the years with just four in 2020, six in 2022 doubling to 12 in 2023 and up to 15 this year. 

Several updates have been made to World University Rankings 2024 methodology to include unprecedented levels of breadth, depth, detail and assessment of data making it the most rigorous and robust ranking of its kind in the world.   

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This year there are 18 calibrated performance indicators (up from 13 last year), which are grouped into five pillars: teaching, research quality, research environment, international outlook and industry. Four of the five new metrics include three that look at Research Quality and one that examines patents in the industry pillar.   

Since 2021, research quality has declined significantly in Nigeria relative to the rest of the world. In contrast, the country’s international score, compared to the world average, has been growing steadily over the last four years. 

 

Please note the studying abroad metric is not used in the ranking calculation. 

Phil Baty, THE’s Chief global affairs officer, said:  

“While Nigeria’s universities faced several setbacks this year, what is particularly encouraging is that more and more universities in the country are submitting data to the rankings. They are keen to stand up and be counted, to compete and importantly make their presence felt on the global university stage. Only with this kind of rigorous, global benchmarking can Nigerian universities identify the challenges and opportunities for improved international competitiveness. 

“We strongly encourage even more universities in the country to participate in the most comprehensive, authoritative and rigorous ranking of its kind in the world and to deploy the data to develop a clear pathway to success.” 

The UK’s University of Oxford is the highest ranked university in the world in the World University Rankings with Stanford University taking second place, making it the US’s top ranked university, and in third place is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.   

THE’s top 10 universities in the world  

Institution Country/region 2024 Rank 
University of Oxford United Kingdom  1  
Stanford University United States  2  
Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States  3  
Harvard University United States  4  
University of Cambridge United Kingdom  5  
Princeton University United States  6  
California Institute of Technology United States  7  
Imperial College London United Kingdom  8  
University of California, Berkeley United States  9  
Yale University United States  10  

View the full World University Rankings 2024 results and see World University Rankings 2024 methodology.  

2.       Please note some changes to institutions’ scores will be influenced by methodological changes this year and we’d advise noting that when making comparisons with previous year’s results.  

3.       Top 100 universities in THE’s WUR 2024 

Institution Country/Region 2024 Rank 
University of Oxford United Kingdom  1  
Stanford University United States  2  
Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States  3  
Harvard University United States  4  
University of Cambridge United Kingdom  5  
Princeton University United States  6  
California Institute of Technology United States  7  
Imperial College London United Kingdom  8  
University of California, Berkeley United States  9  
Yale University United States  10  
ETH Zurich Switzerland  11  
Tsinghua University China  12  
The University of Chicago United States  13  
Peking University China  14  
Johns Hopkins University United States  15  
University of Pennsylvania United States  16  
Columbia University United States  17  
University of California, Los Angeles United States  18  
National University of Singapore Singapore  19  
Cornell University United States  20  
University of Toronto Canada  21  
UCL United Kingdom  22  
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor United States  23  
Carnegie Mellon University United States  24  
University of Washington United States  25  
Duke University United States  26  
New York University United States  27  
Northwestern University United States  28  
The University of Tokyo Japan  29  
University of Edinburgh United Kingdom  =30  
Technical University of Munich Germany  =30  
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Singapore  32  
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland  33  
University of California, San Diego United States  34  
University of Hong Kong Hong Kong  35  
Georgia Institute of Technology United States  36  
University of Melbourne Australia  37  
King’s College London United Kingdom  =38  
LMU Munich Germany  =38  
Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University Paris France  40  
University of British Columbia Canada  41  
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign United States  42  
Shanghai Jiao Tong University China  43  
Fudan University China  44  
KU Leuven Belgium  45  
London School of Economics and Political Science United Kingdom  46  
Universität Heidelberg Germany  47  
Delft University of Technology Netherlands  48  
McGill University Canada  49  
Karolinska Institute Sweden  50  
University of Manchester United Kingdom  51  
University of Texas at Austin United States  52  
Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong  53  
Monash University Australia  54  
Kyoto University Japan  =55  
Zhejiang University China  =55  
University of Science and Technology of China China  57  
Université Paris-Saclay France  58  
University of California, Davis United States  59  
The University of Sydney Australia  60  
University of Amsterdam Netherlands  61  
Seoul National University South Korea  62  
University of Wisconsin-Madison United States  63  
Brown University United States  =64  
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong  =64  
Wageningen University & Research Netherlands  =64  
Australian National University Australia  67  
Washington University in St Louis United States  68  
University of California, Santa Barbara United States  69  
The University of Queensland Australia  70  
Institut Polytechnique de Paris France  71  
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill United States  72  
Nanjing University China  73  
University of Southern California United States  74  
Sorbonne University France  75  
Yonsei University (Seoul campus) South Korea  76  
Leiden University Netherlands  77  
Boston University United States  78  
University of Groningen Netherlands  79  
University of Zurich Switzerland  80  
University of Bristol United Kingdom  81  
City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong  82  
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) South Korea  83  
UNSW Sydney Australia  84  
University of Minnesota United States  85  
Purdue University West Lafayette United States  86  
University of Glasgow United Kingdom  =87  
Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong  =87  
Humboldt University of Berlin Germany  =87  
RWTH Aachen University Germany  90  
University of Bonn Germany  91  
University of California, Irvine United States  =92  
Vanderbilt University United States  =92  
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin Germany  94  
Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian Federation  =95  
University of Tübingen Germany  =95  
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden  =97  
University of Southampton United Kingdom  =97  
Erasmus University Rotterdam Netherlands  =99  
Ohio State University (Main campus) United States  =99  

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