The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, has commended Vice-Chancellor Professor Ayodeji Agboola for steering the institution to improved standing in international university rankings, as the university continues a multi-year climb in its digital visibility and academic profile.
OOU’s rise up the rankings has been a recurring talking point for the university’s leadership in recent months. Speaking at a governing council retreat in July, Agboola disclosed that the university had moved from a position of over 4,000th in global rankings four years ago to approximately 2,700th, with the institution placing 15th in Nigeria and 51st in Africa on the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities at the time.
The Webometrics ranking, published biannually by the Cybermetrics Lab of the Spanish National Research Council, evaluates institutions based on their digital presence, research visibility, open scholarly repositories, and overall academic impact, rather than the reputational surveys used by some other global ranking systems.
At the same event, Agboola attributed the university’s improved standing to a combination of sustained government backing, prudent institutional leadership, industrial harmony between management and staff, and strategic investment in academic programmes, research, and technology. He noted that institutions receiving stronger government support consistently perform better in national and international rankings, citing federal universities as well as Lagos State University and Ekiti State University as comparative examples.
Agboola also pointed to major financial endowments as evidence of growing confidence in the institution, disclosing that OOU had recently secured a ₦1 billion endowment from businessman Dr Kunle Hassan for the establishment of a professorial chair a gift he said followed a similarly sized ₦1 billion donation previously made by the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona.
The union’s praise for Agboola continues a pattern of relatively warm relations between OOU’s leadership and its ASUU chapter in recent years. Notably, in 2022, the ASUU-OOU branch organised an unusual send-forth event honouring Agboola’s predecessor, Professor Ganiyu Olatunde, at the branch’s newly built secretariat a gesture that guest lecturer and former University of Lagos Vice-Chancellor Professor Rahmon Bello described at the time as reflecting an unusually healthy relationship between the university’s management and its academic union, one he urged other institutions to emulate. Agboola, then newly installed as Olatunde’s successor, praised his predecessor at the same event.
OOU’s improved standing comes against the backdrop of the July 2026 edition of the Webometrics rankings, which assessed 32,148 universities and higher education institutions worldwide. The University of Ibadan (UI) emerged as Nigeria’s top-ranked institution in that edition, placing 1,291st globally, followed by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in 1,355th position and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in 1,397th. No Nigerian university featured in the global top 1,000 in the same edition, underscoring the gap that persists between the country’s leading institutions and top-ranked universities worldwide, even as individual institutions like OOU report steady internal progress.
Different reports on OOU’s Webometrics standing in 2026 have cited somewhat varying figures at different points in the year including a 15th-in-Nigeria, 2,865th-globally position disclosed by the vice-chancellor in July reflecting the fact that Webometrics rankings are updated biannually and can shift between editions. Readers should treat the specific “2,338 globally, eighth in Nigeria” figures referenced as the latest available snapshot, pending confirmation from OOU’s official channels or the Webometrics database directly for the most current edition.
