For three years, the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Ekiti State, has been ranked overall best in Nigeria and 221 of over 7,000 universities in the world by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (THEIRs), a renowned global educational institution, RASAQ IBRAHIM writes on ABUAD’s meteoric rise to excellence and journey to global visibility
Since the founding of the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) in 2009, it has always been in the news for the right reasons. The institution has continued to shine brightly like the proverbial Northern Star.
ABUAD has not only carved a niche for itself on the international grid of quality academic excellence and intellectualism, but also has become a transformative driving force in shaping the future of university education in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large.
From its inception, ABUAD’s trajectory has been dotted by unalloyed commitment to revolutionising Nigeria’s education sector and pushing the boundaries of 21st Century solution-driven knowledge, innovation as well as intellectual possibilities beyond the four walls of the classrooms.
When ABUAD made its debut into Nigeria’s education space in 2009 with the aim of transforming the country’s education sector, a few saw hope in the horizon.
Skeptics’ concern was predicated on the fact that the existing public and private universities had failed to live up to their mandate.
But, ABUAD, within the short period of its existence, has proved the pessimists wrong in terms of exploits in academics, innovation, scholarships and research.
The institution, which began academic works on Monday January 4, 2010, with 240 students, currently has over 9,000 students. Since then, ABUAD’s academic calendar has remained predictably stable, making it possible for students to forecast, with precision, their year of graduation from the time of admission.
ABUAD, within seven years, received 100 per cent accreditation in all its 47 academic programmes, including Law, Engineering and Medicine. It has a multi-million naira farm covering 1,000 hectares, an industrial park and an independent power plant to power the institution.
In complementing its flagship medical programme, ABUAD built a modern 400-bed multi-system teaching hospital; the best of its kind in the world. It was officially inaugurated on October 20, 2017, eight years after the university was established.
ABUAD’s founder, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), in his determination to ensure that the hospital stands out among others of its kind, equipped it with state-of-the-art facilities and first-class medical equipment that are virtually absent in most hospitals in the country.
It has eight modular theatres, a CT scan, two MRI scan machines, 16 kidney dialysis machines, a humidifier, intra-aortic balloon pumps, maquet vario twin-HL20 hearts lung machines, servo-I adult ventilator with compressor and maquet servo air ventilator.
The multi-system tertiary hospital has a wide range of telemedicine equipment with inbuilt tele-consulting, tele-diagnosis and tele-management capabilities that enable medical experts in various fields of medicine from remote locations to participate effortlessly in surgical operations.
The hospital has successfully carried out several kidney transplants, brain, heart and spine surgeries, surgical oncology with attention to breast, intestinal, liver and pancreatic cancers, plastic surgeries, eye surgeries and urological surgical procedures, among other medical breakthroughs.
ABUAD has also recorded monumental and unparalleled achievements as a result of which its students have carted home avalanche of laurels and awards at national and international stages.
Despite the concern about Nigeria’s quality of education, students of ABUAD are recording impressive results in national and global examinations. The university recorded an unparalleled milestone in July 2019 when all the 43 pioneer medical students presented for the final MBBS examination recorded a 100 per cent pass with eight distinctions.
The achievement thus made ABUAD the first university in Nigeria to graduate its first set of medical doctors within seven years, whereas some older universities that began their medical programmes more than 15 years, are yet to produce their first set of medical doctors.
The performance of the institution’s law graduates during the 2018 bar examination conducted by the Nigerian Council of Legal Education was mind-boggling. The law graduates recorded a 100 per cent pass rate with ABUAD students being the overall best. In addition to these feats, the law graduates won 24 out of the 36 available prizes.
The latest in the series of academic feats was the 94 per cent pass rate recorded in the November 2023 Nigerian Law School Bar Examination, where 21 law graduates of the institution bagged First-class and 69 Second Class (Upper Division) in the examination.
In a remarkable display of academic and ICT skill, six students of the varsity’s Department of Computer Science won every laurel at the 2023 edition of TechXPlore, a tech convention involving 10 federal and private universities in Nigeria.
The federal universities are the University of Ilorin, and the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, and the University of Lagos. The private universities are Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Bells University, Otta, Bowen University, Iwo, Crawford University, Igbesa, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos and Adeleke University, Ede.
In an unprecedented development, a First-class ABUAD Law graduate, Mary Adeyemo, was in 2021 offered direct admission for her PhD at Oxford University without going through the LL.M programme. It was a turning-point in the life of Adeyemo, whose quality education and knowledge she received at ABUAD brought the best in her.
The institution has equally recorded many firsts, including the first private university to take off on its permanent site and the first university to secure full accreditation for Medicine and Nursing within five years.
The first university to secure 100 per cent success in its Nursing examination; the first private university and the youngest to host the prestigious 29th Conference of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities.
ABUAD was also first private university to become the headquarters of Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT); the first university in the West Africa to run Mechatronics as a degree course; the first university to procure a world class telescope to enhance space technology, and the first private university to have an independent power plant (IPP) as well as an industrial research park.
It must be in direct appreciation of all these multiplicity of national, continental and international recognitions and laurels that 12 foreign and local universities have adopted ABUAD as their mentor-institution.
The universities include the 33-year-old Benue State University, Benson Idahosa University, International University of the Grand Bassan and Ecole Professionnelle Specialisee-La City University, Republic of Benin, Ado Bayero University, Kano, University for Industrial Development Ghana, Western Delta University, Delta State and Azman University, Kano, among others.
The adoption of ABUAD as an academic mentor for the universities was not accidental. They were fascinated by its towering profile, stellar academic excellence, scholastic exploit, medical breakthroughs and its dominant global visibility among the elite universities in the world.
So, the latest ranking of the institutions as the best universities in Nigeria for the three consecutive years 2022, 2023 and 2024 by Times Higher Education Impact Rankings was not a flash in the pan but rather an acknowledgement of ABUAD’s giant academic strides.
According to the rankings, the 15-year-old private university emerged the overall best among all the 264 federal, state and private universities in Nigeria, fourth in Africa and ranked 142nd among all the 2,152 ranked universities in the world.
The institution was also rated first in the world in the Social Development Goal 7 (affordable and clean energy), overall best in Outreach Programmes as well as Stewardship with a score of 98.2 per cent in the global impact rankings.
On the excellent feats, the founder attributed ABUAD’s meteoric rise to its quality curriculum, stable and predictable academic calendar as well as an unwavering commitment to academic excellence.
Babalola said: “We are here today to share good news for the third consecutive year. Part of it is that our university has, again, been ranked as the No. 1 University in Nigeria and number 142 in the world.
“Notwithstanding, our ranking position has changed significantly. The reason is that this year, our ranking has gone global.
“This result constitutes a challenge to all Nigerians, particularly our universities. We are all aware of the economic doldrums that the country is battling with. I must stress that education is the panacea to all the ignorance, extremism, poverty, religious bigotry and tribalism, among other problems confronting the country.
“It is my conviction that if people can emulate the type of complete and innovative education system, hard work, honesty and faith being exhibited in ABUAD, Nigeria would have been better for it.”
He thanked members of the university community for their relentless efforts in making sure that ABUAD was reckoned with, in the educational sector, even as he urged them not to rest on their oars.
“I encourage all members of staff to see our current ranking as a call to duty, so that, apart from remaining number one next year, we will be number one in other areas and number one globally in everything,” he said.
ABUAD Vice-Chancellor, Professor Smaranda Olarinde, said the multiplicity of achievements recorded so far reflected the alluring uniqueness of the 15-year-old institution as an ivory tower with a difference.
She said the university has been living up to its expectations in delivering its tripod mandate of quality learning, cutting-edge research and community services.
Prof. Olarinde, who described ABUAD as one of the best universities in Africa, said the university’s founder, management and staff members are irrevocably determined to work towards making the institution one of the best 100 in the world.
She noted that Babalola’s can-do spirit and his commitment to change the ‘ugly narratives’ about the education system in the country were evident in the successes and achievements recorded by the university.
She noted that the successes and the leading ranks of the ABUAD have resulted in the request of foreign and local universities seeking mentorship from the school.
Prof. Olarinde promised that the institution’s management and members of staff of the institution would continue to justify Babalola’s huge investment in the university by working harder towards making ABUAD a leading global hub of human capital development.
She said: “In ABUAD, our role in the education sector in the country and in Africa is to transform the educational system. Our founder believes that you do not transform something by doing everything the usual way, but you can only transform something by doing things the excellent and uncommon way.
“At ABUAD, we have collectively achieved this enviable level of national and global academic excellence because of the quality of graduates we turn out through impactful education and training, not only for degrees but also in character and industrious moulding.
“We commenced academic operations at ABUAD approximately 15 years ago. In those short 15 years, we rose from nothing to being continually ranked high by the global body, the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking and even agencies of government in Nigeria.
“Out of thousands of qualified universities globally, ABUAD has always effectively come ahead of several other universities, in Africa, Asia, Europe and United States. In a few years, we shall be talking of ABUAD being one of the best 100 universities globally,” she added.
