The latest Webometrics ranking released last month has ranked the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, as the best university in the country and has placed
the same institution among the best 1,500 universities in the world.

The Webometrics University Ranking, which is based on university web presence, visibility and web access,
also ranked the foremost tertiary institution in the country as
14th in Africa.

Acting Public Relations Officer, PRO of the UNN, Chief Okwun Omeaku, who announced this to newsmen at Nsukka,
Enugu State, attributed the improved rating of the institution to enhanced research efforts in the university buoyed by the Vice-Chancellor’s encouragement and financial reward system.

According to Omeaku, UNN, in the latest
edition of the ranking which started in 2004, was rated the first in Nigeria, 1389th best university in the world and 14th best in Africa based on its Google Scholar citation profile.

The University of Ibadan was graded 1608th in the World, 18th in Africa and 2nd in the country.

“In the penultimate Webometrics ranking, the UNN was ranked 7th in Nigeria and 82nd in Africa, and had no
trace in the global rating,” he said, adding that the administration of the university, under Prof. Benjamin Ozumba had introduced a- publish-and-be-paid policy to encourage academic
staff in engaging in impact factor-based researches.

Under the policy, the university
administration pays publication fees for research papers that have been accepted for publication in journals with Thompson Reuters Impact Factor.

The administration also undertakes to give cash rewards to staff who publish in the approved Impact Factor,
IF, journals.

Such reward ranges from N10, 000 to N200,000 depending on the IF rating of the journal.

The Ozumba-led administration also approved N100,000 as seed capital for over 214 research groups in the
university.

“The UNN is the only university in the
country where staff are paid for publishing research articles that
will be considered for their promotions,” Omeaku added.

Assuring that the rating was the first sign
of a glorious future for the university, he asserted that, “The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ozumba, is determined to make the UNN the best in Africa and among the top 10 in the world. That will happen
sooner than later.”

The ranking system measures how strongly a university is presented in the web by its own web domain, sub-pages,
rich files and published scholarly articles.

The ranking system is predicated on the
belief that web presence is a reliable indicator of the global
performance and prestige of the universities and could serve as an
indirect way to measure efficiency of universities in the performance of their tripartite function of teaching, research and knowledge transfer.

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