The University of Ibadan (UI) has maintained its position as Nigeria’s leading research university in the latest AD Scientific Index, with federal institutions dominating the country’s top university rankings.
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by the Chairman of the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee (NiTERAC), Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola.
According to the report, the latest edition of the AD Scientific Index, updated on October 1, 2026, ranked Nigeria 48th globally among 221 countries and third in Africa, with 384 institutions and 53,580 scientists included in its database.
The University of Ibadan retained its first position nationally, ranking 889th globally out of nearly 19,800 universities assessed. The result places the institution among the top 4.5 per cent of universities worldwide and makes it the only Nigerian university in the global top 1,000.
UI also maintained its 14th position in Africa, improving from 904th globally in the previous assessment conducted in mid-August.
The report attributed the university’s performance to its strong research output and the contributions of its academic community, which includes 1,586 indexed scholars.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka, retained second place nationally, while the University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Ilorin, Ahmadu Bello University, Nnamdi Azikiwe University and Bayero University also featured among the country’s leading institutions.
The report further revealed that at least eight of Nigeria’s top 10 universities are federally owned, highlighting the significant contribution of federal institutions to the country’s research landscape.
Beyond institutional rankings, the assessment also examined the research impact of individual academics, using indicators such as the H-index, i10-index and total citations to measure scholarly contributions.
Mayowa Owolabi of the University of Ibadan emerged as Nigeria’s most-cited researcher, recording 257,748 citations and ranking 676th globally among more than 2.6 million indexed researchers.
Shafiu Mohammed of Ahmadu Bello University followed with 242,300 citations, while Olayinka Ilesanmi of the University of Ibadan ranked third nationally with 185,602 citations.
The report noted that 16 of the 22 Nigeria-based researchers featured among the country’s 25 most-cited scholars are affiliated with federal universities.
Despite the progress, the assessment identified the need for Nigerian universities to strengthen research quality, increase international collaborations, improve citation impact and support highly productive research groups.
It also urged institutions to regularly update their Google Scholar profiles and invest in doctoral training to improve their global academic visibility.
The findings come amid ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to develop a national framework for assessing the performance of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The report concluded that Nigeria’s growing presence in international research rankings reflects progress in the country’s academic sector, while stressing the importance of sustaining the momentum through improved research standards and institutional support.
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