University of Ibadan, Oyo State, has been ranked Nigeria’s best university in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.
According to Punch Newspaper, the ranking, published on THE’s website on Thursday, placed the federal university between 801 and 1,000 globally and ahead of other leading Nigerian universities.
The survey was carried out in 2,191 institutions from 115 countries and assessment based on 18 performance indicators across five major areas such teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook.
Coming from fourth position in 2025 to emerge as Nigeria’s best in the 2026 ranking, UI defeated Covenant University, which was the best university in 2024 and 2025.
Other highly ranked university in Nigeria are the University of Lagos, Bayero University, and Covenant University. They were ranked second, third, and fourth in Nigeria, respectively.
Punch reports that the 2026 list reflected a shift in the global higher education landscape, with more than 174.9 million citations from 18.7 million research publications analysed and survey responses from over 108,000 scholars collected globally.
THE rankings also show the strength of individual institutions. UNILAG is ranked highest in quality research, scoring 66.7. BUK is ranked as the best Nigerian university in terms of international outlook, while Covenant University has the highest industry score, indicating its top connection to industries.
Out of 51 Nigerian institutions featured in THE 2026 ranking, only UI and UNILAG fall between 801–1000; BUK, CU, and Landmark University fall between 1001–1200; while five schools—Ahmadu Bello University, Federal University of Technology, Minna, University of Ilorin, University of Jos, University of Nigeria—stand globally between 1201–1500.
