Alex Omenye
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Owunari Georgewill, has expressed excitement and satisfaction with the university’s ranking as the fourth best in the country.
In its most recent results, published on Wednesday by the international academic ranking organization Webometric, UNIPORT was ranked fourth out of 284 public and private universities in Nigeria.
Obafemi Awolowo University and Covenant University, Ota is in second and third place, respectively, behind the University of Ibadan, which continues to hold the top spot in the ranking.
The vice chancellor remarked that UNIPORT improved from its rating of fifth in 2022 to fourth in the most recent 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 the overall first position.
“Also, UNIPORT took the number one position on the excellence and transparency indexes – which is a clear testament to the ongoing transformation in the university.
“Although we are a bit low on the impact index, going forward, UNIPORT will do all it can to make sure we improve on our impact,” he said.
According to Georgewill, the management team of the institution is now entirely focused on turning it become the top university in the nation within the near future.
“Since we came on board, we have focused on the reasons the university was established: 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 denied rumors that the university had punitively removed more than 2,000 students’ names from the graduation list and prevented them from participating in their mandatory national youth service.
According to him, the impacted students either failed to notify their departments of their results or were unaware that they were eligible for graduation.
Georgewill encouraged the disgruntled students to visit their departments and ask for the spreadsheet of their results in order to find out whether or not they still owed courses.
“This administration has ensured that when any result is ready, the vice chancellor approves it, pending when the Senate is called to rectify it.
“So, there is no result anywhere we have left out to wait. I am there to approve every result,” he added.
University of Port Harcourt, founded in 1975 is a second-generation Federal University located in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria with over 50,000 students and a strong focus in Petroleum Engineering.
