The
Vice-Chancellor the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Abdul-Ganiyu
Ambali, has announced that for the first time in history, a Nigerian
university was ranked 20th in Africa and 1,842nd in the world.“I am happy to restate that a remarkable thing happened to the Nigerian university system this year, courtesy of UNILORIN.
“For
the first time since ranking began, a Nigerian university was ranked
among the best 2,000 universities in the world”, he said.
The
professor of veterinary medicine, who spoke with reporters in Ilorin,
the Kwara State capital, on the institution’s 30th convocation lecture,
said the latest ranking of international colleges and universities
placed the university first in Nigeria, 20th in Africa and the 1,842nd
in the world.
Continuing he said, “Though we are not satisfied to
occupy the position we are on the global stage until we are ranked
within the best 200, the achievement of the university will be
underscored when it is realised that 11,307 colleges and universities
are sampled in the ranking in 200 countries.
“The United States alone, not to talk of other advanced countries, has much more that 3,000 universities.
“The
modest work being done at the university has made it the darling of
admission applicants in Nigeria; the university was the eighth most
preferred in 2011 and fifth most preferred in 2012.
“Last year,
we became the 2nd most preferred university in Nigeria and this year we
became the number one choice of applicants with over 105,000 applicants,
the second most preferred university having 74,000 applicants.”
On
his achievements, Ambali disclosed that: “We have embarked on 10,000
hectares of oil palm plantation. We all know that the Malaysian economy
relies much on oil palm and there is a report that they took the seed
from Nigeria a few decades ago.
“However, our country imports
about 500,000 metric tonnes of palm oil annually while Malaysia exported
about 24 trillion metric tonnes of palm oil in 2012 to the United
States, the European Union, China and India.
“The export earned the country some 20 billion pound sterling (about N5.314 trillion).”
The VC put the number of graduating students at 6,328, with 5,438 getting first degrees and 890 higher degrees/diploma.
He
said: “In the first degree category, 48 made first class; 1,290 second
class upper; 2,814 second class lower; 1,067 third class; 84 pass; 18
diplomas and 217 MBBS.”
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