By Trace reporter on July 18, 2016
Prof. Ibrahim Garba, the Vice-Chancellor,
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has said that the ranking of universities
worldwide is “subjective and political’’.
Garba said this when he featured at
the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
It could be recalled that no Nigerian
university was listed in the 2016 annual rankings compiled by the Centre for
World University Rankings (CWUR), a Saudi Arabia-based education consulting
firm.
The vice-chancellor said that most
times, the ranking was aimed at attracting patronage to some universities.
“University ranking is quite a
subjective matter depending on who is ranking and what criteria he is using to
rank.
“There is so much information
floating around in the net that you get people doing ranking and so on.
“Ranking is also political because
education today has become a commercial venture in the world.
“People going for education tourism;
it is a multimillion dollar business. So, people are promoting themselves to
get patronage from people that are seeking education.
“So, it is very difficult sometimes
to believe a particular ranking especially when it is not done by you or your
own people but by some other people that are using some set standards.’’
According to Garba, since ranking is
becoming increasingly acceptable, it has become a challenge, which universities
struggle to overcome.
He said, however, that it was
impossible for any Nigerian university to be ranked even if they produced
geniuses.
The vice-chancellor, who is a
professor of Geology, said the criteria used in ranking tertiary institutions
globally, could not be met be Nigerian universities.
He identified one of the major
challenges facing Nigerian universities as lack of knowledgeable people.
“The visibility in the virtual world
is number one criteria; they want to see all the research work from such
universities.
“They want to see how many Nobel
laureates you produce; how many foreign students and lecturers are in your mix.
“In terms of research we do not have
stable electricity; there is no laboratory in the world where electricity is
interrupted.
“In Nigerian universities today, even
if the facilities are there, there is no steady power supply.
“No spare parts; we have to import;
the infrastructure is so degraded that it is not possible for you to come out
clean on your own,’’ he said.
The vice-chancellor said that if not
for the intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the
standard of Nigerian universities would have degraded further.
He said TETFund was an idea of the
Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities and not of the Federal
Government.
According to him, because TETFund is
an interventionist agency, the funding of universities should not be left for
it alone.
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