NIGERIA: President seeks better global ranking for universities

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has urged universities to work toward attaining a more respectable position in world universities rankings in the next five years, reports This Day. He pledged the federal government's commitment to improving learning facilities in universities, and asked institutional administrators to ensure that resources made available to them were judiciously used.

In an address sent to a convocation of the University of Benin, the President said it was unacceptable for no Nigerian university to be ranked among the top 500 in the world.

He also directed the Nigerian University Commission and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board to streamline the post-school screening examinations and to ensure they did not appear "exploitative". He noted that parents and guardians had complained about the cost of the examination, and warned that the federal government would not hesitate to scrap the test if both parties failed to streamline it.
Full report on the This Day site