By Desmond Ejibas
Port Harcourt – The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Prof. Owunari Georgewill, has expressed satisfaction over the ranking of the university the fourth best in the country.
Georgewill expressed his feelings at a news conference in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
Webometric, a global academic ranking organisation, in its latest rankings released on Wedneaday, rated UNIPORT the fourth best out of the 284 public and private universities in Nigeria.
In the ranking, University of Ibadan (UI) still retains its position as the best university, followed by Obafemi Awolowo University and Convenant University, Ota in second and third position respectively.
The vice chancellor noted that UNIPORT took a leap upward from the fifth position it held in 2022 to be rated fourth in the latest ranking.
“Our current ranking clearly shows that we as a management team are doing the right things with the support of our stakeholders.
“This global ranking consists of some parameters like openness in which we were rated number one, higher than the university that took overall first position.
“Also, UNIPORT took the number one position on the excellence and transparency indexes – which is a clear testament of ongoing transformation in the university.
“Although we are a bit low on impact index, going forward, UNIPORT will do all it can to make sure we improve on our impact,” he said.
Georgewill said the institution’s management team was now fully focused on making it become the best university in the country in the nearest future.
“Since we came onboard, we have focussed on the reason the university was established; in the areas of teaching and learning, research, community service and entrepreneurship.
“We will not rest on our oars until we make UNIPORT the best university in the country and among the best in Africa,” he stated.
The vice chancellor dismised reports purporting that the institution had punitively withheld the graduation list of over 2,000 students and blocked them from proceeding for their compulsory national youth service.
He said the affected students had either not ratified their results in their departments or were simply unaware of their graduation eligibility.
Georgewill advised the aggrieved students to go to their departments and request the spreadsheet of their results to ascertain if they still had courses pending or not.
“This administration has ensured that when any result is ready, the vice chancellor approves it, pending when the Senate is called to ractify it.
“So, there is no result anywhere we have left out to wait. I am there to approve every result,” he added. (NAN)
