I had been working on a university project for a few hours when I had cause to go through the university’s website. As the home page opened, I was once again awed by the magnificent appeal this (foreign) university’s website impressed on me. At that instant I thought of going through websites of notable Nigerian universities – federal and private – to see how they compare to this university. The outcome of my adventure into this rigorous process of website-checking for all the 30+ top Nigerian universities surveyed, shocked me to my marrows. I was totally disappointed to see how poorly represented Nigerian public universities are on their websites even when compared to lower ranked universities abroad. Most of them had sites that were not even worthy of being called blogs. A notable trend though, was that private universities had better branding compared to the bulk of their public university counterparts, even though most of them didn’t rank as highly on league tables. A common problem amongst these “top” universities was that they had tabs on their sites that were unresponsive. Moreso, with most of the universities, it’s almost difficult to find anything regarding the research or academic activities of faculty/ students on the websites (isn’t that supposed to be the core of a university's existence?). In an age where computer science and ICT has become more accessible to any and everyone, and considering the funds at the disposal of some of these universities, one is forced to ask why a simple sophisticated website is hard to achieve.

Following my exploration, I have compiled a list of the universities with the best websites based on my observation. Since this is subjective, you might disagree between two closely ranked universities, but the difference becomes clear if you try to compare the 1st and 7th university’s websites for instance. This ranking is different from most others because the aim is not solely to make one university feel superior to another, but (hopefully) to awaken Nigerian institutions to the fact that their websites are viewed by a global audience, and the least they can do is to bring them up to the standard of what top universities should have.

The major criteria used in this ranking is “First impression”. That feeling of awe you have when you open up John Hopkins https://www.jhu.edu/, Yale or Imperial University’s websites.

I honesty fell head -over- heels with "Salem university ".
such a beautiful interface...

Aspiregreat:
I honesty fell head hills with "Salem university ".
such a beautiful interface...

Well said man, I'm glad you agree. It's website could easily be first on this ranking based on that alone.

What is this one saying? Where is better by far?

Jammy2012:
What is this one saying? Where is better by far?

Do you understand what this ranking is even about?

Please take time to read the OP's post. Unilorin has dead links and the front page is cluttered.


OP you've done a good job.

berildan:
3. Salem University (Ranked 3rd for excellent first impression. Not particularly spectacular in content and navigation)

This is rubbish. why didn't they use the pic of their students as the background

Chiscomax:



This is rubbish. why didn't they use the pic of their students as the background

What is this one saying? Since when did you become student council president at Salem to know who is a student and who isnt?

Xcely:


What is this one saying? Since when did you become student council president at Salem to know who is a student and who isnt?

You are a Toad! Period.

Chiscomax:



You are a Toad! Period.

They resort to invectives when they don't have a more rational response.

Xcely:


They resort to invectives when they don't have a more rational response.

K

Good job Mr. Berildan, I hope Nigerian Universities will start taking issues pertaining to their branding, most importantly online presence serious.

Berildan, kindly reply my mail. Thanks.

Lalasticlala