The Ranking system of the World is not fair to Universities in Africa.
The Secretary General of the Association of African Universities AAU, Prof.Olusola Oluwole said this in Abuja while speaking to Voice of Nigeria on the announcement of United Kingdom’s High Potential Individual (HPI) visa aimed at attracting highly skilled graduates from non-UK universities.
Prof.Oluwole queried why the government of UK gave a special Visa to the word excluding African universities saying the exclusion is due to the non-presence of any Nigerian or African universities in the Top 50 universities of the world in the ranking.
According to the AAU Sec.General, a major feature for the consideration of being among top universities of the world includes reputation of academicians in universities and numbers of Nobel laureates in the Institution.
“The ranking system is not fair to many African universities, one of the first thing they look at is reputation of academicians in the universities and they look at numbers of Nobel laureates,
How many of us in Africa fit into that category?”
Prof. Oluwole stressed that African Universities need to orientate themselves more in the area of research lamenting that many of the research carried out on the African continent are still being sponsored by the western world.
“But I recognise one that as African universities , we need to re orientate ourselves in terms of research, many of the research we do are still been sponsored from outside of the country except for efforts made by the likes of Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund and the National Universities Commission “
“The average African academician does not know where to go to seek for research grants and what we are having now is not enough”
The AAU Sec.General added that scholars from Africa can compete favourably with any researcher in other parts of the world.
“It has also been found that students of any African universities including Nigerian universities are more resilient and more innovative, take a Nigerian graduate to any part of the world , you will find out that they will excel “
He expressed hope that the UK government would change their minds soon on it High Potential Individual (HPI) visa.
“To know that some other countries like Canada and the U.S desire Nigerian products because they know they are resilient and innovative” he added.
The United Kingdom’s High Potential Individual (HPI) visa is aimed at attracting highly skilled graduates from non-UK universities to work in various fields, such as science, technology and entrepreneurship in the country.
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