Institute Graduates 1,403 Certified Professionals

The Virtual Institute for Capacity Building in Higher Education (VICBHE) has graduated 1,403 certified ranking professionals and unveiled the continent’s first home-grown African University Ranking System (AURS).

The director/facilitator-general of VICBHE Prof, Emeritus Peter Okebukola, made this known in a statement he released to journalists yesterday in Abuja.

He said the ceremony held on Tuesday, featured the inauguration of the Association of Ranking Professionals (ARP), a new body to serve as the backbone for ranking practitioners across Africa.

VICBHE, which began in 2001 as the Virtual Institute for Higher Education Pedagogy (VIHEP) under the National Universities Commission (NUC), continues under the leadership of professor emeritus Okebukola, who serves as director/facilitator-general.

Okebukola said that the event marked the conclusion of Module 12 of the institute’s flagship programme titled “Mastering University Rankings for Global Visibility.” The ceremony was chaired by Professor Abiodun Humphrey Adebayo, former Vice-Chancellor.

Module 12 delivered seven weeks of intensive training consisting of ten practical sessions, weekly assessments, and Monday live lectures.

Approximately 90 per cent of the 2,409 participants were drawn from Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, while the remaining trainees came from Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Sierra Leone.

Participants were equipped with technical expertise in all major global ranking systems—Times Higher Education (THE), QS World University Rankings, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Webometrics, Leiden, CWUR, the AD Scientific Index, and Clarivate analytics.

The training also provided mastery of data normalisation and indicator weighting techniques essential for institutional ranking strategies.

Okebukola in his remark, reminded the graduates that earning the credential was only the beginning of their mission.

He charged the 1,403 newly certified Ranking Professionals—the largest cohort ever trained on African soil—to return to their institutions as champions of quality data, global competitiveness, and evidence-based decision-making.

According to the former Executive Secretary of NUC, with the newly established professional body and the AURS framework, Africa has taken a bold step toward reclaiming the narrative of quality in its higher education systems and elevating the visibility of its universities on the global stage.

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Ellen Hazelkorn, globally renowned scholar of university rankings and Joint Managing Partner at BH Associates Education Consultants.

Her book on the impact of rankings on higher education has shaped policy conversations worldwide.

The statement further noted that three Special Guests of Honour also addressed the audience: Professor Jamil Salmi, former World Bank Tertiary Education Coordinator and a leading higher education policy expert with advisory engagements in over 105 countries; Prof. Dr. Olgun Cicek, international quality assurance and TVET specialist, and Board Director of INQAAHE; and Professor N. V. Varghese, Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIT Bombay and former Vice-Chancellor of NIEPA New Delhi.

Eleven awards were presented to exceptional participants across various professional categories: Best Overall Participant – Malam Adamu Adamu Prize: Professor Charity Akuadi Okonkwo (National Open University of Nigeria); Best Serving Vice-Chancellor – Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed Prize: Professor Ibiyinka Agboola Fuwape (Michael and Cecilia Ibru University).

Best Former Vice-Chancellor – Professor Mohammed Nasiru Maiturare (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria); Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i Prize: Professor Oyedunni Sola Arulogun (Vice-Chancellor, Chrisland University).

Additional prizes were awarded to outstanding Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, Provosts, Directors of Academic Planning, and regulatory agency representatives.

At the ceremony, the Association of Ranking Professionals (ARP) was officially inaugurated following a continent-wide electronic election held on March 28. A total of 555 charter members cast votes across eleven contested offices.

Professor Umar Nouruddeen Bashir, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology, Kano, was sworn in as the inaugural President.

The ARP executive structure includes six Vice-Presidents for each geopolitical zone, as well as General Secretary, Chief Data Officer, Treasurer and Publicity Secretary. ARP is intended to serve as the professional home for ranking practitioners across Africa, setting standards, building capacity, and advancing the cause of evidence-based university quality advancement on the continent.

One of the ceremony’s major highlights was the launch of the African University Ranking System (AURS) by Professor Okebukola.

The AURS is designed to address long-standing concerns that dominate global ranking frameworks—largely created for highly resourced universities in the Global North—fail to adequately reflect African realities or recognise universities’ societal impact.

The new ranking system drawn from the analytical rigour developed in Module 12, aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and leverages insights from the Nigerian Universities Ranking Advisory Committee (NURAC).

AURS is expected to complement global rankings by offering both a clearer mirror of African performance and a strategic tool for institutional development across the continent.