DELSU Surges In World Universities Rankings

– By Ben Nwanne

The unwavering determination of the Professor Andy Egwunyenga led Administration to advance and reposition the Delta State University and make it more visible globally has again yielded fruits, following the recent release of the Webometrics ranking of World Universities, which placed the University 194th out of 2087 Universities in Africa and 24th out of over 200 universities in Nigeria based on verified Google Scholar Citations.

According to the rankings, Delta State University recorded 56,443 citations ,beating some highly rated Universities in the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Turkey, Portugal Canada, and some other more advanced countries.

Information from the Webometrics website suggests that “the webometrics ranking of world universities is an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consenjo Superior de Investigaciones Ciencificas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain.
CSIC is among the first basic research organisations in Europe.”

According to the website, the organisation had since 2006 over 126 Centres and institutes in Spain and is attached to the Ministry of Education and its main objective is to “promote scientific research and to improve the progress of the scientific and technological levels of the country which will contribute to increase the welfare of the Citizens.”

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Describing the exercise as “transparent”, Webometrics explained that the top Universities rankings emerged through a rigorous analysis of citations in top Google Scholar profiles. “We are using the domain of the email (web) addresses for filtering the profiles and data in the GS citations,” it explained, warning that if multiple profiles not belonging to the University were added intentionally to increase its rank, the institution would be excluded from the ranking.

Webometrics also advised authors to be aware of ethical issues and clean their profiles periodically. “Also, institutions should monitor their members’ profiles for intended (or unintended) fake, incorrect or duplicate records. This is key for the ranking as any institution with these problems can be excluded from the future editions of the rankings.”

The news of the University’s encouraging rankings was received with satisfaction and joy among members of the University community. In a congratulatory message to the Vice-Chancellor, the Chairman of the Delta State University, Abraka branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU-DELSU), Professor Godwin Demaki wrote :”We Salute you over this categorical, factual evidence in the realisation of one of the Union’s fundamental objectives in the establishment and maintenance of a high standard of academic performance and professional practice in this University as demonstrated in Article 2, Object 3 of the ASUU Constitution.”

In his own congratulatory message, the Immediate Past Commissioner for Higher Education in Delta State, Professor Patrick Muoboghare commended the adroit manner the Vice-Chancellor had piloted the affairs of the University since his ascension to the position. According to him, “the Vice-Chancellor did not import lecturers from without to perform this feat. He merely provided an enabling environment, particularly a peaceful one, for them to blosom. Now see the harvest. I congratulate the Vice-Chancellor, a discussing Senate and the field commanders. I wish you all better days.”

Speaking in the same vein, the easy-going Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, FSS, Professor Sam Ogege described the Vice-Chancellor as “highly spirited” for his “unparalleled and unprecedented milestone and other laurels in DELSU’s kitty to his credit, adding that God should grant him all he needs to take our University to a sought-after height.”

Describing the development as a “great one in deed for Delta State University” the Immediate Past Dean of Faculty of Education, Professor Emperor Kpankpan congratulated the Vice-Chancellor, Management, staff and students on the achievement and prayed for more in the future.

On his part, the Deputy Dean of Students (Abraka), Dr Patrick Ijeh, an Associate Professor, described the development as “very refreshing good news”, adding that it was an indication “that we are making progress in the right direction and a challenge to strive to get better individually and collectively. Good things happen when a good man is providing leadership”.

Adding his voice, a former ASUU-DELSU Chairman and current member of the University’s Governing Council, Professor Emma Mordi described it as “a giant leap forward. Kudos to DELSU academics and the Comrade Vice-Chancellor.”

Reacting to the development, an elated Professor Andy Egwunyenga congratulated and expressed gratitude to distinguished members of Senate on the great leap. The team player who is giving DELSU an enlightened and committed leadership, remarked: “We collectively propelled Delta State University to the top 10% of Universities in scholarship in both Africa and Nigeria.”

It would be recalled that three years ago, a similar ranking was released by Webometrics in which DELSU made a wonderful outing. According to that report as captured by this writer on his Facebook page on June 1, 2020, “DELSU made great gains, jumping from its 78th position among Nigerian Universities to a more respectable 38th position and from a previous 19th position to 7th among State Universities”.

Going by the current rankings, Harvard University, Standford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), all in the United States of America (USA), are the best universities in the world with 22,692,656; 18,310,805 and 12,371,188 citations respectively.