CU Emerges as Nigeria’s Top University in 2024, Overtaking UNILAG and UI [Full List]

Covenant University (CU), a private institution in Nigeria, has been named the nation’s top university in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings.

This prestigious global ranking, published annually by Times Higher Education, evaluates universities across the world.

In addition to Covenant University, Nigeria’s top five universities include the University of Ibadan in second place, the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in third, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in fourth, and Bayero University, Kano, in fifth.

The 2024 edition of THE assessed 1,907 universities from 108 countries and regions using 18 performance indicators. These indicators measured institutions’ performance in areas such as teaching, research environment, research quality, industry engagement, and international outlook.

The ranking process for 2024 involved analyzing over 134 million citations from 16.5 million research publications, along with survey responses from 68,402 scholars worldwide. Additionally, 411,789 data points were gathered from 2,673 institutions that submitted data for consideration.

Globally, the University of Oxford in the UK retained its top spot for the ninth consecutive year, setting a record for the longest reign in THE Rankings history, surpassing Harvard University’s eight-year streak that ended in 2011. Stanford University (US) climbed to second place, while Harvard dropped to fourth. The University of Cambridge (UK) fell to fifth in 2024, after sharing the third position in 2023.

Nigeria’s Top Universities:

1. Covenant University
2. University of Ibadan
3. Federal University of Technology Akure
4. University of Lagos
5. Bayero University, Kano
6. University of Ilorin
7. University of Nigeria, Nsukka
8. Afe Babalola University
9. University of Benin
10. Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta
11. Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
12. Lagos State University
13. Nnamdi Azikiwe University
14. Obafemi Awolowo University
15. University of Port Harcourt
16. Abia State University
17. Akwa Ibom State University
18. Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike
19. Babcock University
20. Baze University
21. Bells University of Technology
22. Benson Idahosa University
23. Delta State University, Abraka
24. Edo State University, Uzairue
25. Edwin Clarke University
26. Elizade University
27. Evangel University, Akaeze
28. Federal University of Kashere
29. Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun
30. Federal University of Technology, Minna
31. Federal University of Technology, Owerri
32. Fountain University
33. Landmark University
34. Nasarawa State University, Keffi
35. Niger Delta University
36. Plateau State University, Bokkos
37. Thomas Adewumi University
38. Veritas University, Abuja
39. Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano

Global Top-10 Universities:

1. University of Oxford, UK
2. Stanford University, US
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US
4. Harvard University, US
5. University of Cambridge, UK
6. Princeton University, US
7. California Institute of Technology, US
8. Imperial College London, UK
9. University of California, Berkeley, US
10. Yale University, US