THE MAKING OF A WORLDCLASS UNIVERSITY WITH AN
AGRARIAN FOCUS
by
Prof. Afolayan, J.O.
Ag. Vice-Chancellor
Landmark University, Omu-Aran
HIGHLIGHTS
• The Concept of a University
• The So-Called World Class Universities
• The Ranking Systems of World Universities
and their Parameters
• The Strides of Landmark University (LU)
• The 2014/2015 Strategic Pursuit of LU
• Concluding Remarks
THE CONCEPT OF A UNIVERSITY
Meaning
• An institution of higher education having
authority to award bachelors' and higher
degrees, usually having research
facilities. (British Dictionary)
• A university may be modeled as a city, or
indeed as a state, with all the stuff and
intricacies attendant on a state.
• A university is constantly in a race for global
relevance and drives a system that is wholesome,
competitive and futuristic. (Njoku, 2008)
Functions
•
•
•
•
Teaching
Research
Community impact
Driving of enterprises
Expectations
Due to globalisation, universities are to be:
- Vital sources of new knowledge and
innovative thinking
- Providers of skilled personnel with credible
credentials
- Contributors to innovations
Expectations cont’d
- Attractors of international talents and
business investment
- Agents of social justice and mobility
- Contributors to social and cultural vitality
THE SO-CALLED WORLD-CLASS
UNIVERSITIES (WCU)
• A World-Class University has been
described as an elitist state that is
conferred based on international
recognition by an external community
(Salmi, 2009).
Key features of WCU (Salmi and Tremblay,
2000):
• High concentration of talents (faculty and
students)
• Abundant learning and research resources
• Favourable governance
The dynamic interaction of the key features
constitutes the characteristics of highranking universities (see Figure 1)
Figure 1: Alignment of Key Features of a WCU
(Source: Salmi, 2009)
Other Expectations from WCU
• commitment to breadth and excellence
in all fields of human inquiry
• engage in cutting-edge research whilst at
the same time teaching the next
generation, their students
• allow their researchers the freedom to
experiment, succeed, and sometimes fail
• have permeable boundaries. This means
encouraging interdisciplinary research
and teaching
THE RANKING SYSTEMS OF WORLD
UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR PARAMETERS
– Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking
– Academic Ranking of World Universities
– Webometrics Ranking
– Professional Ranking of World Universities
– Newsweek Ranking, and
– Others
Ranking Parameters
Times Higher Education (THE) World University
Ranking
The grouped performance indicators:
– Teaching: the learning environment (30%)
– Research: volume, income and reputation
(30%)
– Citations: research influence (30%)
– Industry income: innovation (2.5%)
– International outlook: staff, students and
research (7.5%).
Scope of ranking
Universities are excluded from Rankings, if:
• they do not teach undergraduates;
• they teach only a single narrow subject; or
• their research output amounted to fewer
than 1,000 articles between 5 years (i.e.,
200/year).
• In some exceptional cases, institutions
that are below the 200-paper threshold
are included if they have a particular focus
on disciplines with generally low
publication volumes, such as engineering
or the arts and humanities.
Research: Volume, income, reputation
(30%)
• This category is made up of three
indicators.
– Reputation for research excellence among
its peers – 18%
– University research income, scaled against
staff numbers – 6%
– Research productivity – the number of
papers published in the academic journals
indexed by Thomson Reuters per academic –
6%
Citations: Research influence (30%)
– It is the single most influential of the 13
indicators, and looks at the role of
universities in spreading new knowledge and
ideas.
– We examine research influence by capturing
the number of times a university's published
work is cited by scholars globally.
Industry income: Innovation (2.5%)
• A university's ability to help industry with
innovations, inventions and consultancy
has become a core mission of the
contemporary global academy.
• This category seeks to capture such
"knowledge transfer" by looking at how
much research income an institution earns
from industry, scaled against the number of
academic staff it employs.
Teaching: The learning environment (30%)
– This category employs five separate
performance indicators designed to
provide a clear sense of the teaching and
learning environment of each institution
from both the students and the academic
perspective.
– The dominant indicator here uses the
results of the world's largest invitationonly academic reputation survey.
– The teaching category also examines the
ratio of doctoral to bachelor's degrees
awarded by each institution.
– We believe that institutions with a high
density of research students are more
knowledge-intensive and that the
presence of an active postgraduate
community is a marker of a research-led
teaching environment valued by
undergraduates and postgraduates alike.
International outlook: People, research
(7.5%)
– This category looks at diversity on campus
and to what degree do academics
collaborate with international colleagues on
research projects - both show how global an
institution is in its outlook.
The Academic Ranking
Universities (ARWU)
of
World
• This is compilation by the Shanghai Jiao
Tong University that is being maintained by
the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.
• The ranking is funded by the Chinese
government with an initial purpose of
measuring the gap between Chinese and
"world class" universities.
• The ranking criteria are as follow:
Webometrics Ranking
The Ranking Web or Webometrics is
the largest academic ranking of
Higher Education Institutions. Since
2004 and every six months an
independent, objective, free, open
scientific exercise is performed by
the Cybermetrics Lab (Spanish
National Research Council, CSIC).
• The four ranking indicators include:
- Size (S). Number of pages recovered
from four engines: Google, Yahoo,
and Bing Search.
- Visibility (V). The total number of
unique external links received
(inlinks) by a site, according to
Yahoo Site Explorer.
- Rich Files (R). Academic and publication
activities and the volume of the different file
formats: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe
PostScript (.ps), Microsoft Word (.doc) and
Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt). These data were
extracted using Google, Yahoo and Bing.
- Scholar (Sc). Items published in
Google Scholar and the SIR –
SCImago Institutional Ranking.
LANDMARK LAND-MARKING STRIDES
• Within the first four years of
establishment, LU has made her position
among the universities in Nigeria.
• In pursuit of agrarian revolution, LU
envisions enlistment among the top 10
world universities in the next 10 years!
• The dynamite: GODLINESS, and the
RANKING CRITERIA of Times Higher
Education (THE) and the Academic
Ranking of World Universities.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
THE WHEREWITHAL
Disciplined Friendly Learning Atmosphere
Reviewed Curricula
Redefined Research Focus
Qualitative Research Publications
Qualitative Teaching and Research
Facilities
Vibrant Staff Development Programme
Linkages with industries and institutions
Establishment of International and
Alumni Offices.
WHY WE CANNOT PROCRASTINATE
Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of
World-Class Universities has rooms for
• Universities older than 50 years and
• Universities under 50.
He who says he can, he can and that in the
energy of the SPIRIT. Remember that
Elijah outran the chariot of Ahab!
A LOOK INTO 2014/2015 ACADEMIC
SESSION
• Innovations and research collaborations
among faculties
• Establishment of Landmark University
Centre for Applied Research and
Development (LUCARD)
• Collaborative drive with industries and
organizations with agricultural focus
• Pursuit of collaboration with international
institutions with agrarian inclination
• Preparation of postgraduate curricula.