University of Ibadan, Oyo State, has been ranked Nigeria’s best university in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.
The ranking, published on THE’s website on Thursday, placed the Ibadan-based federal university between 801 and 1,000 globally and ahead of other leading Nigerian universities, a spot it last held in 2023.
The survey surveyed 2,191 institutions from 115 countries and assessed them based on 18 performance indicators across five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.
UI came from fourth position in 2025 to emerge as Nigeria’s best in the 2026 ranking. It dethroned Covenant University, which was the best university in 2024 and 2025.
Following UI are the University of Lagos, Bayero University, and CU, ranked second, third, and fourth in Nigeria, respectively.
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.