A report by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in its 2021 universities ranking, has indicated that only 25 varsities in the country have their courses fully accredited.

The commission added that less than 70 per cent of courses offered by the other ivory towers are accredited.

Eight out of the 113 universities that the NUC focused on, including the Nigeria Army University, Biu, in Borno State and Air Force Institute of Technology, have none of their courses accredited by the NUC the document showed. Nigeria has 170 public and private universities.

According to the commission, none of the 113 universities has a full complement of professors.

In its “2021 Nigeria University system rankings” dated December 11, 2021, the NUC also rated the University of Ibadan (UI) as the country’s best with 454.56 points.

The premier university is trailed by Redeemers University (RUN) with 384.96 points; Covenant University (368.11 points); Ladoke Akintoka University, Ogbomoso (315.23 points) and Federal University of Technology Akure (264.14 points).

Surprisingly, none of the best-ranked varsities was listed among the 25 institution that have their courses 100 per cent accredited.

The 25 are: Adeleke University, Osun State; Al-Qalam University, Katsina State; Caleb University, Lagos State; Chrisland University, Lagos State; Crescent University, Ogun State; Federal University, Lokoja, Federal University, Wukari, Federal University, Kashere.

Also on the list are Hallmark University, Ogun State; Hezekiah University, Imo State; Ibrahim Babangida University, Niger State; Igbenedion University, Edo State; Kano University of Science and Technology, Kano; Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Kogi State University and Maitama Sule University, Kano State.

The others are McPherson University, Ogun State; Mountain Top University, Ogun State; Niger Delta University, Delta State; Nigeria Defence Academy; PAMO University of Medical Science, River State; Rivers State University; Samuel Adegboyega University, Edo State; Summit University, Kwara State; Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua University, Katsina State.

NUC explained in the 146-page report by its Executive Secretary, Abubakar Rasheed, that the ranking was coordinated by a team of experts drawn from the academic planning units of 91 universities.

A former NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Peter Okebukola headed the team.

According to the document, 31 universities have over 90 per cent of their courses accredited. Twenty have over 80 percent accredited; 11 have above 70 per cent and 11 with between zero and 50 per cent accredited courses.

Apart from the Nigeria Army University and Air Force Institute of Technology, the other six universities without a single accreditation are Admiralty University, Bayelsa Medical University, Dominion University, Skyline University, Spiritas University, and The Technical University.

Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Taraba State University, Bukar Abba University (Yobe State university), Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoye, Novena University, Federal University of Petroleum Studies, Maritime University among those missing from the ranking.

Others include Moddibo Adama University of Technology, Yola; Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndife-Alike; Veritas University, Abuja, , Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Federal University, Gashua, Federal University, Gusau, Federal University Kebbi

The report further revealed that several private institutions with very high fees performed poorly in the ranking with 12 failing to make any contribution to what NUC classified as “knowledge economy.”

The ranking of universities, the Commission explained in the report, is based on several factors.

One is the percentage of academic programmes which is used to measure the overall academic standing of the university, compliance with carrying capacity, the proportion of the academic staff of the university at the professorial level as well as the proportion of the academic staff who are non-Nigerians and non-Nigerian students.

Another is the proportion of staff of the university with outstanding academic achievements, Internally–generated Revenue, research output, student completion rate, doctoral graduate output for the year, stability of university calendar, and student to PC Ratio.

NUC added in the report that in arriving at the proper rating, the computation was based on student-teacher ratio; percentage of full professors; percentage of international staff and students; percentage of programmes with full accreditation; efficiency which is measured as student completion rate; all citations per capita; All h-index per capita; All 1-10-index per capita; Google scholar presence and contribution to knowledge economy.

Mountain Top University was listed as the only institution with a 100 per cent presence on Google scholar. It was followed by Babcock University, 91.22 per cent; University of Port Harcourt, 89 per cent; Rivers State University, 82 per cent, and Edo State University, 81 per cent.

Bells University of Technology has a 65.63 per cent presence on Google scholar; the American University of Nigeria, 62.76 percent, and Afe Babalola University, 26.99 per cent.

The report showed that Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, has no single presence on Google scholar.

None of the universities that featured in the ranking has full complement of professors it needs with the highest-ranked in terms of full professorship being Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto with 36.44 per cent Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife with 35.80 percent, UI with 29.04 percent, the University of Abuja with 25.53 per cent and University of Benin with 23.26 per cent.

The remaining 108 universities have less than 20 per cent of full professors with Summit University having no single professor.

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Nigeria, University of Lagos, and Afe Babalola university have 18.92; 15.51; 14.74 and 14.71 per cent respectively.

On the availability of International staff, Skyline University was ranked first with 65.23 per cent presence, followed by the American University of Nigeria with 20 percent and Nile University, Abuja, 12.11 per cent.

Forty universities have no presence of international staff, with seven of them being federal universities.

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) lead the others in terms of student-to-teacher ratio with 363.35 points followed by Tai Solarin University, 88.26 points.

Adamawa State University, University of Abuja, the University of Benin, and University of Lagos followed with 59.24; 43.49; 24.47, and 20.73 points respectively.

In terms of ranking by efficiency, Niger Delta University was ranked highest with 99.49 per cent, followed by Babcock University, Bowen University, Tai Solarin University of Education, McPherson University, and the Federal University of Technology, Minna.

UI also led in per capita All citations with 377.52 points. RUN came second with 304.4 points followed by Covenant University and Ladoke Akintoka University with 279.37 and 245.78 points respectively.