THE MAKING OF A

WORLD-CLASS
UNIVERSITY WITH AN
AGRARIAN FOCUS
by
Prof. Afolayan, J.O.
Ag. Vice-Chancellor
Landmark University, Omu-Aran

HIGHLIGHTS
The Concept of a University
The So-Called World Class
Universities
The Ranking Systems of World
Universities and their Parameters
The Strides of Landmark University
(LU)
The 2014/2015 Strategic Pursuit of
LU
Concluding Remarks

THE CONCEPT OF A
UNIVERSITY
Meaning
An institution of higher
education having authority to
award bachelors' and higher
degrees, usually having research
facilities. (British Dictionary)
A university may be modeled as
a city, or indeed as a state, with
all the stuff and intricacies
attendant on a state.

Functions

Teaching
Research
Community impact
Driving of enterprises

Expectations
Due to globalisation, universities
are to be:
- Vital sources of new knowledge and
innovative thinking
- Providers of skilled personnel with
credible credentials
- Contributors to innovations

Expectations contd

- Attractors of international talents

and business investment
- Agents of social justice and mobility
- Contributors to social and cultural
vitality

THE SO-CALLED WORLD-CLASS

UNIVERSITIES (WCU)
A World-Class University has been
described as an elitist state that
is conferred based on
international recognition by an
external community (Salmi,
2009).

Key features of WCU (Salmi and

Tremblay, 2000):
High concentration of talents
(faculty and students)
Abundant learning and research
resources
Favourable governance

The dynamic interaction of the key

features
constitutes
the
characteristics
of
high-ranking
universities (see Figure 1)

Figure 1: Alignment of Key Features of a

Other Expectations
from WCU
commitment to breadth and
excellence in all fields of human
inquiry
engage in cutting-edge research
whilst at the same time teaching
the next generation, their
students
allow their researchers the
freedom to experiment, succeed,
and sometimes fail

THE RANKING SYSTEMS OF

WORLD UNIVERSITIES AND
THEIR PARAMETERS
Times Higher Education (THE)
Ranking
Academic Ranking of World
Universities
Webometrics Ranking
Professional Ranking of World
Universities
Newsweek Ranking, and
Others

Ranking Parameters
Times Higher Education (THE)
World University Ranking

The grouped performance

indicators:
Teaching: the learning
environment (30%)
Research: volume, income and
reputation (30%)
Citations: research influence
(30%)
Industry income: innovation
(2.5%)

Scope of ranking
Universities are excluded from
Rankings, if:
they do not teach
undergraduates;
they teach only a single narrow
subject; or
their research output amounted
to fewer than 1,000 articles
between 5 years (i.e., 200/year).
In some exceptional cases,
institutions that are below the
200-paper threshold are included
if they have a particular focus on

Research: Volume, income,

reputation (30%)
This category is made up of three
indicators.
Reputation for research excellence
among its peers 18%
University research income, scaled
against staff numbers 6%
Research productivity the number
of papers published in the
academic journals indexed by
Thomson Reuters per academic
6%

Citations: Research influence (30%)

It is the single most influential of the
13 indicators, and looks at the role
of universities in spreading new
knowledge and ideas.
We examine research influence by
capturing the number of times a
university's published work is cited
by scholars globally.

Industry income: Innovation

(2.5%)
A university's ability to help
industry with innovations,
inventions and consultancy has
become a core mission of the
contemporary global academy.
This category seeks to capture
such "knowledge transfer" by
looking at how much research
income an institution earns from
industry, scaled against the
number of academic staff it
employs.

Teaching: The learning

environment (30%)
This category employs five
separate performance indicators
designed to provide a clear sense
of the teaching and learning
environment of each institution
from both the students and the
academic perspective.
The dominant indicator here uses
the results of the world's largest
invitation-only academic
reputation survey.

 The teaching category also

examines the ratio of doctoral to
bachelor's degrees awarded by
each institution.
We believe that institutions with a
high density of research students
are more knowledge-intensive and
that the presence of an active
postgraduate community is a
marker of a research-led teaching
environment valued by
undergraduates and
postgraduates alike.

International outlook: People,

research (7.5%)
This category looks at diversity on
campus and to what degree do
academics collaborate with
international colleagues on
research projects - both show how
global an institution is in its outlook.

The Academic Ranking

World Universities (ARWU)

of

This is compilation by theShanghai

Jiao Tong Universitythat is being
maintained by the Shanghai
Ranking Consultancy.
The ranking is funded by the
Chinese government with an initial
purpose of measuring the gap
between Chinese and "world class"
universities.
The ranking criteria are as follow:

Webometrics Ranking

TheRanking Web or
Webometricsis the largest
academic ranking of Higher
Education Institutions. Since
2004 and every six months an
independent, objective, free,
open scientific exercise is
performed by
theCybermetrics Lab

 The four ranking indicators

include:
- Size (S). Number of pages
recovered from four engines:
Google, Yahoo, and Bing
Search.
- Visibility (V). The total
number of unique external
links received (inlinks) by a
site, according to Yahoo Site
Explorer.

- Rich Files (R). Academic and

publication activities and the volume
of the different file formats: Adobe
Acrobat (.pdf), Adobe PostScript (.ps),
Microsoft Word (.doc) and Microsoft
Powerpoint (.ppt). These data were
extracted using Google, Yahoo and
Bing.

- Scholar (Sc).Items
published in Google Scholar
and the SIR SCImago
Institutional Ranking.

LANDMARK LAND-MARKING
STRIDES
Within the first four years of
establishment, LU has made her
position among the universities in
Nigeria.
In pursuit of agrarian revolution,
LU envisions enlistment among
the top 10 world universities in
the next 10 years!
The dynamite: GODLINESS, and

THE WHEREWITHAL
Disciplined Friendly Learning
Atmosphere
Reviewed Curricula
Redefined Research Focus
Qualitative Research Publications
Qualitative Teaching and
Research Facilities
Vibrant Staff Development
Programme
Linkages with industries and
institutions

WHY WE CANNOT
PROCRASTINATE
Times Higher Education (THE)
ranking of World-Class
Universities has rooms for
Universities older than 50 years
and
Universities under 50.

He who says he can, he can and

that in the energy of the SPIRIT.

A LOOK INTO 2014/2015

ACADEMIC SESSION
Innovations and research
collaborations among faculties
Establishment of Landmark
University Centre for Applied
Research and Development
(LUCARD)
Collaborative drive with
industries and organizations with
agricultural focus
Pursuit of collaboration with