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Claim: The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) is the second-best university in Nigeria.
Verdict: FALSE. A 2023 data report published by Times Higher Education in the World University Ranking and Ranking Web proves the claim false.
Full Text
It is not unusual for individuals to brag about the academic milestones that the respective universities that they attended have achieved. It has always been a tedious debate about which tertiary institution ranks higher than the other.
An X (formerly Twitter) user, Millennium.py (@the_millenium1), boasted on the microblogging App that the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta (FUNAAB) is the second-best in Nigeria.
“History of The Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, FUNAAB. The glory of our days! The (second) (b)est (u)niversity in Nigeria.” The user wrote.
The post attracted 4,644 views, 48 reposts, three quotes, and 170 likes as of Wednesday, Nov 14, 2023.
While some X users doubted the claim’s authenticity, others quickly believed it.
“Where are you people, seeing it’s the second-best university?” Enigma.eth (@enigma137x) inquired.
“This is nice.” Lexzee (@devlexzee) commented.
However, due to the controversial nature of the claim, we decided to fact-check its veracity.
Verification
Using a keyword search on Google, we came across a news report published by Punch newspaper containing the Times Higher Education ranking. The ranking placed the University of Ibadan as the second-best University.
Punch reports that the list is based on a “(World University Ranking) WUR 3.0 methodology,” which ranks each school based on specific indices- teaching, research environment, research quality, industriousness, and international outlook.
Premium Times also published a similar report.
Therefore, we checked the report given by Times Higher Education, a private enterprise reputed for publishing University rankings and academic data since 2004.
We discovered that the global education world-ranking organisation places the University of Ibadan second after Covenant University in the 2024 ranking.
A further look at the ranking report showed that the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) is in the eighth position, holding a joint ranking status with Afe Babalola University, University of Benin, Ladoke Akintola University, Lagos State University, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Obafemi Awolowo University, and the University of Port Harcourt.
Ranking Web, the largest academic ranking of higher education institutions, uses web domains, sub-pages, rich-content files, and scholarly articles to rank tertiary institutions.
According to Ranking Web’s 2023 rankings, Covenant University is second, with a world rank of 1354, behind the University of Ibadan, with a world ranking of 1207.
FUNAAB comes thirtieth on the list, with its world ranking at 4,139.
Local University ranking outlet UniversityGuru was also consulted in DUBAWA’s verification. However, while it reflects the university ranking positions published by global ranking outlets such as Times Higher Education, the indices used to rank the schools are not spelt out.
Conclusion
The claim is false. Findings from Times Higher Education and Ranking Web disprove it.
